Protopia - Franc Kaiser

Protopia / 2022 / Franc Kaiser (Shanghai, China) / Acrylic on cardboard / 23.25 x 33 inches / $1900

“A wild creature in a dystopian environment - at least there is still pizza.”

Franc is a Swiss artist, residing in Shanghai, P.R. He is a self-taught painter, and focuses on surrealistic depictions of animals and anthropomorphic subjects, often in a sci-fi or futuristic setting. Franc uses traditional painting methods: He paints with acrylics, applied on treated cardboard, for a realistic depiction, with 10% surreal elements thrown in the mix. Franc is often inspired by the feel of 1970s sci-fi illustrations. He expresses the ruthlessness of biology and all things living and thinking. Each painting is conceived and concepted early on in terms of topic and composition via sketches – the act of painting itself is a mere execution. Although he is a foreigner living in China, Asian design elements are rarely found in his work - the subjects express just that "fish out of water" allegory. His daily feeling and experience of living in a different culture and context reflects in both fascination and fear, opportunity and shortcomings, and brood behind the surface of his paintings. Although the subjects may be lovely to look at on the surface, he has a rather cynical approach to the matter. His personal experience in corporate environments (Franc worked for many years as a strategy management consultant on behalf of many multinational corporations) are channeled forward as what he likes to call “corporate angst.”

This piece is not available for pick-up or shipping until after June 17, 2023 as it is part of the current exhibition.

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xo Trash Lamb