In Stephan Grunenberg's (*1954) exhibition Erdregionale Repräsentanten machen auf sich aufmerksam at Robert Grunenberg, everything that lies 'below the waist' plays a role. In the traditional canon of painting, it is primarily the face and the upper body that receive attention. Meanwhile, the lower body is, of course, omitted, for example in half-length portraits in painting or in busts. Grunenberg subversively turns this principle on its head - or rather, on its legs. What kind of image is created when the torso and head are omitted with the same matter-of-factness? 

Grunenberg's dog, which joined the family, also provided the impetus for his latest series of medium-sized acrylic paintings. Dogs, associated with unconditional love, playfulness, subordination, and grounding, have long appeared in Grunenberg's paintings. But on walks he observed the animal's interaction with humans and discovered a new perspective in his painting.

Brightly coloured, extremely reduced forms of shoes, feet, legs, trousers and stockings collide with everyday objects that are often barely noticed: bouquets of flowers, shoe soles. All these elements become part of an almost choreographed, precisely balanced composition, which the artist first defines in sketches. The works of the former Städel student, who studied with Thomas Bayerle and began his career in the 1980s, reflect influences from post-war modernism and post-modernism as well as personal contemplations on painting and life.

Grunenberg's career was influenced by his aunt Josefa, a nun and artist who worked as a missionary in South Africa, where she also taught art. During her first stay in Germany in the late 1950s, when she studied for a semester at the Düsseldorf Academy, she brought back works and artefacts from her students. These made a lasting impression on Grunenberg, who was still a toddler at the time. Their reduced forms, such as a bamboo cane patterned with black paint, are recurring motifs in his paintings to this day. Like trouser legs or shoes, they are often broken down into geometric or silhouette-like, brightly coloured elements. All the forms that he incorporates into his compositions come from his immediate surroundings, including the half-timbered house of Grunenberg's grandfather, who was a sculptor. Often it is spaces, objects, situations, memories from childhood that echo in Grunenberg's paintings, a family history in which the love of modern and non-European art resonates. There are reminiscences of the traumas, the awakening and the abstract styles of the post-war period, of the revolts of the 1960s, of punk and wave, of the digital age.