Christian Holze – Vernissage Meeting Room

In the virtual world, masterpieces of antiquity such as the Laocoon Group in the Vatican Museums or the baroque "David" by Gian Lorenzo Bernini are experiencing a revival and are marketed there in other contexts. Web portals distribute them as 3D scans for computer animation, for advertising agencies or film and television productions. The same applies to famous paintings such as Raphael's "School of Athens". On the basis of such commercially used images, the artist develops computer graphics, which he then processes and alienates in simulated space using various methods. Thus, the sculpture of the Farnese bull dominates the first exhibition space of the NEWCOMER Gallery. Here the artist works with the motif in two ways, on the one hand as a painter, on the other as a sculptor. In both versions, as a painting and as a sculpture from the 3D printer, he doubles the work and combines the part rotated by 180 degrees with his usual view to form a unity; in a sense, the copy slips into the work.

Christian Holze addresses the issue of copyright and branding through the use of digital watermarks, such as those used by online image databases. They establish ownership and authorship.

The fashion world uses logos and brand names to increase market value. Price determination and value enhancement are also linked to artist names in art. In disclosing his artistic practice of sampling and transforming existing visual material, Christian Holze refers to the product character of his artworks and at the same time claims authenticity, as they apply analogously to NFT artworks with a certificate of ownership.