RAINER MARIA WEHNER
Sculptor , Painter, Multi Media Artist
S T A T E M E N T
For more than twenty years I have worked with script in three dimensions to make sculpture and drawings. I have used cutouts, distortion, and exaggeration of scale to visualize and eternalize spoken words rather than as a conventional system of signs. This is still the theme of my graphical work.
The ‘Menetekel Series’ began with a proposal for the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin in 1995. The idea of the biblical writing on the wall as a prophecy nobody is able to decipher, influenced my further work. During my first residency at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York in 2000, I started to combine x-rays and scintigrams with fluorescent light and steel constructions in my work. Similar to script reduced to its structure or its layout pattern, x-rays of human bodies don’t show the usual appearance of a person and give the viewer a completely different cluster of ‘readable’ intimate information and show the personality of the individual in a completely different way.
Most of the x-rays are of my body or from airport security scanners enlarged to life size and illuminated in open constructions or within a steel framework. Others were given to me. Some of them are movable units or wheeled modules, often solid scaffolds with integrated cold light bulbs, designed to enlighten the images. For the last twenty years I have worked with welded steel, fluorescent light, x-rays and film transparencies and drawings. My personal involvement with the x-rays demonstrates human intimacy in a technical and growing virtual world. Combined with the fragmented widely unreadable text of old testamentary prophecy, while the luminous images are a metaphor for the interaction of human spirit and archetypes. My drawings are executed on transparent paper or mylar worked from both sides and loosely hung in heavy steel box frames with glass panes. The unusual dimensions and the sculptural framework turn the work into a physical appearance, a sculptural object. The suggestion of a physical body gives the whole work a poetical note. Fragmented text and luminous images become metaphors of the interaction of human nature and spirit, technology and culture, prophecy and religion.
Born in Munich, West Germany
Studied at Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe, D,
MFA degree in Fine Arts and Art History
Studied in Philosophy and Sociology, University Karlsruhe, D
Lived and worked in New Zealand, Auckland NZ
Lives and works in Berlin, D and Utica NY
Moved to USA
Taught Drawing and 3D Design at Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, NY
Taught Sculpture and Intaglio Printmaking at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, NY
Worked at Warehouse Gallery and Point of Contact Gallery at Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
Teaches art at SUNY POLY
Lives in Utica, New York and Berlin Germany
S E L E C T E D S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S
2023 “Vesper”, 4 Elements Gallery at The Westwood, Utica NY
2018 “Structures”, Cogar Gallery, Herkimer College, Herkimer NY
2017 “The Power Show”, Novado Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2014 “Air, Gravity and Structure”, The Other Side Gallery, Utica NY
2013 “Contemporary Drawings, Recent Trends”, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton NY
2008 “From the Life…” Beck Fine Arts Gallery Homburg,D
2006 “Dein Goldenes Haar Margarete…”, Earlville Opera House, Earlville NY
– “Technology radiates Art”, State University of New York, Institute of Technology, Utica NY
2005 “Invisible Intersections”, Cazenovia College Art Gallery, Cazenovia NY
– “Art and Science“, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton NY
2004 “Human Units”, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2003 “Intimacies”, Houghton House Gallery, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
2002 “Sensuals” Beck Fine Arts Gallery, Homburg, GER
– EXIST ART Container, Long Night of the Open Museums, New National Gallery, Berlin, D
2001 “New York – New Work, Private Mythologies”, Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum, Utica, NY
– “Lebens Beschreibung” [Life Description] Kunstraum Berlin, City Gallery, Berlin,
– “New York – New Work “, Charlottenburg Palace Orangery, Berlin, D (catalog)
– “New York – New Work” Museum im Bürgerhaus, Neunkirchen D (catalog)
2000 “Berlin – New York”, Sculpture Space, Utica New York
S E L E C T E D GROUP E X H I B I T I O N S
2024 The Art of New York, Arkell Museum Canajoharie
2023 4Elements, Poghosian Gallery, Utica NY
2020 “60 Years Anniversary”, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton NY
2019 “Art Legacy”, Reach Center, Rome NY
2011 “Made in New York”, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Museum, Auburn New York
2008 61st Exhibition of Central New York Artists, Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Utica
2007 “Drawing on Purpose”, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Museum, Auburn NYork
2005 “Made in New York”, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Museum, Auburn NY
2001 “Freie Wahlen”, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, D