b. Germany 1974

Friedrich Kunath describes his colorful, tragicomic works as “Sunshine and Noir.” Focused on such universal experiences as love, loss, hope, and dejection, Kunath’s work is influenced by popular culture, art history, and his adopted city of Los Angeles. He crosses abstraction and representation, realism and surrealism in his paintings, sculptures, drawings, videos, and photographs, producing dreamlike vignettes full of irony and pathos. In an untitled painting from 2007, for example, Kunath transformed a rainbow - a symbol of hope, beauty, and renewal - into an abject, pathetic intrusion. Made out of a thick impasto of oil paint and surrounded by a dark stain, the rainbow stretches brokenly in front of a desolate watercolor landscape. The heaviness of the oil paint contrasts sharply with the delicate wash of the watercolor and makes the rainbow appear awkward and incongruent.

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