Simone Lucas – Sven Kroner: Simulacrum

Simone Lucas and Sven Kroner (both born in 1973) studied painting together at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf and have been a couple ever since. From the outset, the two have worked figuratively, often on large-format canvases. Simone Lucas creates complex worlds featuring, for example, classrooms full of young scientists working to explore the universe; or paintings comprising several scenes, with no separation between the outside and the inside, where plants and wild animals invade the interior spaces. Her more recent works depict hybrid creatures with both human and animal characteristics―plant-people with fungus-like bodies or heads overgrown with flowers. Lucas’ surrealist-looking pictures are striking in their complexity, their surprising motifs and their painterly opulence. Sven Kroner’s extensive work begins with depictions of nature: lakes, panoramic roads, steep snow-covered slopes, sweeping forest, river and thunderstorm landscapes. Since 2013, Kroner has increasingly turned to painting subtle views of interiors, like the stairs in his house, windows, display cases with lopsided glass shelves, aquariums, dioramas and deserted train stations under blue-green skies. Kroner’s pictures often have a dystopian tinge since they show the traces of human action but without any people