Posted on April 3, 2025
THE RHINO
BREAD AND SALT 2025
Arts District Los Angeles
Posted on March 17, 2025
BEASTS
HOLLYWOOD
Posted on February 15, 2025
TALAMANCA, 2025
DTLA
Posted on January 21, 2025
UNBOUND
At Factory Studio
At Factory Studio
Posted on December 22, 2024
TALAMANCA
in progress at Factory Studio
in progress at Factory Studio
Posted on November 5, 2024
THE WALL & REEDS
A symbolic meta structure of playful arranged hyper shapes to lure the viewer into experiencing paint blots as real objects
A symbolic meta structure of playful arranged hyper shapes to lure the viewer into experiencing paint blots as real objects
Posted on September 16, 2024
BEAUTIFUL CHAOS and
ABSTRACT PIXEL SCAPES
Booklet Release at Factory Studio 2024
ABSTRACT PIXEL SCAPES
Booklet Release at Factory Studio 2024
Posted on September 6, 2024
AUSTERE & BEASTS, 2024
Factory Studio
Posted on June 1, 2024
'BASK' 2024
oil on canvas, 40 by 60 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
oil on canvas, 40 by 60 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
Bask is an abstract oil painting that captures the viewer's attention with its dynamic interplay of vibrant colors and organic shapes. The composition is dominated by bold, hand-like forms, painted in striking shades of red, blue, and green. These dominant shapes are intricately surrounded by a multitude of smaller, densely packed, multi-colored dots, which create a lively and textured surface.
The background features a series of wavy lines and patterns primarily in shades of yellows and oranges. These elements work together to provide a sense of depth and movement, making the piece feel almost animate. The juxtaposition of the large, hand-like forms with the intricate dot patterns and swirling lines creates a sense of energetic and organized chaos.
The inspiration behind this piece stems from the whimsical notion of cutouts landing in a pile, reminiscent of confetti dispersing in the air. The unique method of incorporating densely packed dots and pixel-like details adds a layer of complexity and intrigue, inviting the viewer to explore the intricate textures and color interplay that define the artwork. Bask's overall effect is a celebration of vibrancy and movement, engaging the viewer in a visual experience that feels both energetic and dynamic.
Posted on May 25, 2024
FOLLIES AND BLOW 2024
oil on canvas, 40 by 60 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
oil on canvas, 40 by 60 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
Immerse yourself in the vibrant world of FOLLIES AND BLOW, a captivating abstract piece that transforms chaotic energy into harmonious beauty. This artwork features a dense and colorful composition, where the background bursts with a lively mixture of multicolored dots reminiscent of the artist's PIXEL BLOTS technique. At the heart of the canvas, a conspicuous orange-red shape commands attention, juxtaposed against two prominent blue chamfered rectangles that provide dramatic contrast. Scattered throughout the piece are smaller, intriguing elements like circular pink objects and dark lines, all contributing to the intricate and dynamic nature of the composition. Rich in color and form, BLOW celebrates a whimsical sense of fantasy and creativity, crafted through unique BLOTS and BUBBLES of color. It's a testament to the power of imagination, inviting viewers to lose themselves in its playful complexity.
Posted on February 22, 2024
'BANKS' 2022
Factory Studio Los Angeles Arts District
Factory Studio Los Angeles Arts District
A classical structure infused with shamming, shocking breakaway elements, exploring the freestyle composition of a modern scape
Posted on January 19, 2024
'BINGE' 2023
oil on canvas, 3 panels, 72 by 144 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
The artwork BINGE is a visually arresting oil on canvas piece that immediately commands attention with its expansive scale and intricate detail. The triptych's immense dimensions of 72 by 144 inches facilitate a compelling opportunity for the viewer to immerse themselves fully in the complex composition. The use of swirling forms and organic shapes creates a dynamic visual rhythm that emulates the ever-changing nature of an aerial landscape. This motion imbues the piece with a sense of constant flux, drawing the viewer’s eye across the canvas and engaging them in an exploration of its depths.
One of the most striking aspects of BINGE is the masterful use of color. The artist's ability to harmonize earthy tones with vibrant color splashes injects a lively energy into the piece, preventing the composition from becoming monotonous despite its complexity. This juxtaposition of hues suggests a purposeful tension between natural elements and more abstract, dynamic forces. The intricate detailing within the swirls speaks to a high level of craftsmanship and an eye for minute variations, adding layers of texture and visual richness that invite closer inspection.
The inspiration drawn from an aerial view is evident and lends a unique perspective to the composition. The viewer is offered a bird’s-eye glimpse into a tapestry of interwoven forms, evoking thoughts of landscapes, weather patterns, or even the bustling, intricate patterns of urban life seen from above. This perspective is both refreshing and thought-provoking, providing a different lens through which to view the natural world and human interaction with it.
Posted on January, 2024
LAURIE FRANK brought Ringo Starr to my painting exhibition at her gallery MEDIA RARE in Hollywood '01. She was brilliant in her support of my work. Ringo became a collector of a couple of my paintings. We celebrated afterwards at Michelle Lame's Café Des Artists next door on Las Palmas Ave with the whole gang including Barbara Bach. Here's a toast to you Laurie.
Posted on January 18, 2024
SOARS, 2023
Hermann Lederle at Factory Studio
Los Angeles artist Hermann Lederle known for his innovative BEAUTIFUL CHAOS abstract canvas scapes and unique BREAKAWAY layered pixel painting
Posted February, 2024
The All Night Menu Questionnaire: Laurie Frank
At her memorial last weekend, Laurie Frank was compared to Holly Golightly, Sally Bowles, and Dolly Levi. It says a lot that she could only be likened to fictional heroines. "She was a real life Auntie Mame," said Olivia Wilde, who was mentored by Laurie. "She changed my life."
Initially, I knew of Laurie mainly from the gallery she ran in Bergamot Station in the 2000s. I didn't know that when she arrived in LA, she was mentioned alongside Kathryn Bigelow as a screenwriter/director on the rise. Or that she had cast an unknown Johnny Depp and Sherilyn Fenn in her student film for AFI. Or that she'd worked with Eric Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder and Wim Wenders in the 1970s. Or that she'd made short films for Saturday Night Live, including "Prose and Cons," starring a rookie Eddie Murphy.
What do you call someone like that? She was a connector but the word isn't grand enough. When her career as a director didn't pan out, she became an art dealer, but she was more famous for the dinner parties she threw at her self-styled house at 6680 Whitley Terrace, in the hillside neighborhood of Whitley Heights, just above central Hollywood. "Salon" is a term now drained by overuse, but as a true Francophile and student of Paris, Laurie is worthy of its original meaning:
"Unlike the men who shaped themselves and made their mark in the world through careers, the salonnière reaped no material reward from her labor. The economics of her career consisted of pure outlay."
Dena Goodman, "The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment" (Cornell University Press, 1994)
Laurie Frank was pure outlay. At the memorial, her screenwriting partner Floyd Byars (they co-wrote Susan Seidelman's brilliant 1987 film Making Mr. Right, starring Ann Magnuson as a red-haired Laurie avatar) said it best: "Her own dreams were divorced from herself. She bought a house on Whitley Terrace and called it her husband and she used it profligately to enrich all our lives—just like an indulgent husband would have done."
A terrible fire gutted 6680 Whitley Terrace in 2004. In the years that followed, Laurie ran out of money and had to sell her house, then her collections. She never fully recovered. When I interviewed her in the autumn of 2022, she had retreated to a little cottage on a tidy street in Carthay Square and was subsisting on little more than cigarettes and vodka. Still, she laid out a lovely brunch for me with what she had. We picked at the food before retiring to the side patio where she could smoke while we spoke at length. I remember her eyes and the way she held a cigarette, and how both seemed to deeply attune her to the person in front of her.
Anyone could see she was heartbroken and in ill-health and beset by losses. Yet she remained elegant, bright, hilarious. She was intensely watchful for new inspirations, and constantly circulated articles and assorted marvels she found online. To the end, she stayed open and curious—a sole antidote to the terminal bitterness that typically overwhelms and often shrivels even the strongest hearts in her circumstances.
We kept in touch. She was enthusiastic about All Night Menu and about the Questionnaire, and was always sending me names of people to contact—a long list I’m still working through. It was obvious that the simple act of putting people together was for her a profound pleasure.
She had no children, no spouse, and no immediate kin; instead, she cultivated an extended family of close friends from which she then withdrew. My sense was that she still loved seeing people but no longer wanted to be seen. At one point she apologized that she couldn't arrange an introduction for me. "Sam, I have burned so many bridges on the one hand and if I were to reach out to old friends they would want to see me—and how many hip replacements can one person pretend to have?"
She died on November 30, 2023, about a year after we did this interview. Her birthday was a week ago; she would have been 73 on February 16. On Wednesday afternoon, I walked the Whitley Heights steps, where Laurie used to take her beloved dogs Mega and Daddy (who often threatened to maul Paris Hilton's pampered chihuahua Tinkerbell, who lived nearby). It was the day after the rains and everything was damp and green, the sky intensely refreshed. Sometimes called "the first Beverly Hills," Whitley Heights is a dense cluster of chateaus and villas puzzle-pieced into hillsides by the early screen idols. In every corner, there are hidden passageways, rooftop verandas, attic lookouts. A casbah for Hollywood.
I thought about Laurie seeing her neighborhood for the first time; and how falling in love with a place is like falling in love with a person; and how everything changes but the world will never run out of secrets. And I looked down on Laurie's old door, with its rows of carved stars, left slightly open.
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Posted on January 11, 2024
'BLAST' 2023
oil on canvas, 72 by 60 inches
Factory Studio Los Angeles
Director Allan Mindel and Laurie Frank at a screening of 'Milwaukee, Minnesota' in West Hollywood in 2004
Remembering Laurie Frank, the Creative and Social Force Whose Love for L.A. Went Unrivaled
DECEMBER 29, 2023
The screenwriter, journalist and gallerist, perhaps best known for the wit-drenched dinner parties she hosted at her grand Whitley Terrace home, had an unmatched eye for young talent. "She changed my life," says OIivia Wilde. "She was a real life Auntie Mame."
If you knew Laurie Frank — and who didn’t? — you know her great heart burst skyward on Nov. 30. Hours earlier, a technicolor rainbow appeared over the Hollywood Hills, Laurie’s Promised Land.
You likely knew she was in the first class at Yale that matriculated women — class of 1973 — and went on to be an accomplished screenwriter, journalist and acclaimed gallerist. In the late ‘70s, she worked at ABC News and directed short films for Saturday Night Live, famously Prose and Cons featuring Eddie Murphy in a spoof on Norman Mailer’s championing of murderer Jack Abbott.
In the mid-1980s, she moved to Los Angeles and co-wrote Making Mr. Right (1987) starring John Malkovich and Ann Magnuson, as well as Love Crimes (1992) and later ventured into collecting and selling art. From 2002 to 2013, she ran Frank Pictures at Bergamot Station, showcasing artists of fame and those undiscovered. The latter was Laurie’s forte. She was an intuitive mentor and an occasional muse. Olivia Wilde — who spent a long summer as her teenage houseguest — chalks up her career to Laurie. “She changed my life,” says Wilde. “She was a real life Auntie Mame.” Previously, Laurie cast a teenage Johnny Depp in his first role, a short film she directed at American Film Institute.
But Laurie was perhaps best known as L.A.’s quintessential salonista for the mixed-genre dinners she hosted at her Whitley Terrace home, formerly the residence of Maurice Chevalier. She had found her Shangri-La amidst an enclave of 1920s landmark residences in the Hollywood Hills, east of Highland.
Nobody could rival Laurie’s love affair with Los Angeles, except perhaps the late Eve Babitz, who was a native. Laurie called L.A. “this fabulous world of make believe,” wept with joy at her first sighting of the Hollywood sign and never looked back.
Though she was a purebred intellectual — think of her as a thin, extroverted Gertrude Stein — her mantra was “the meal must go on.”
When she visited New York, you would have battled a blizzard to eat at Laurie’s table in the West Village. Indeed, hundreds of people — friends, relatives of friends, recent acquaintances she may have met earlier that day — can claim to have been wined and dined at Laurie’s weekly dinners of champagne, poached salmon and caviar potatoes. Her generosity was bottomless — even when she was living off of a deck of credit cards — as was not infrequently the case.
If you knew Laurie, you know she loved film noir, bel canto opera and all things French — films, food, philosophers and, most especially, men.
Laurie loved gossip — and knew its soft boundary with news. She kept up with The New York Times but was breathless for the tabs — the National Enquirer, the Globe — usually splayed across the kitchen table.
She wasn’t much for sports; exercise might mean having a smoke while walking her decidedly aggressive dogs — boxer, Mega and later her oversized hound, Daddy (the latter having been passed on to her by artist Ed Moses).
A good dish out, either in person or on the phone, was about the limit of her exertions. Laurie dependably had the poop and scoop on cross-dressing right-wing politicians, illegitimate sires throughout the ages and anyone in any closet anywhere — be they gay, Jewish or merely spying for the CIA or Mossad.
You may not have known she was the only child of a schoolteacher and insurance broker in Westbury, Long Island. Her mother Edith’s family had fled Russia and settled in the Bronx, where they scraped by in the pushcart trade. In her teens, her father died, after a long, tortuous illness from a rare heart abnormality. There was plenty of family depression, and her only uncle took his life at 56.
Many of Laurie’s friends believed she had no family nor next-of-kin. In fact, she had a younger cousin, Alan Burstein, who fondly recalls how “she schlepped me all over Manhattan.” He survives her as does his two grown children.
Laurie had been an intrepid traveler. In 1975, she marched across the Sahara in the Green March for Morocco with her friends Sharon Barr and director David Schweizer. She came with me on reporting trips to Chiapas, Mexico, during the Zapatista rebellion of 1994, and to Havana, where she wowed Fidel Castro wearing a green dress patterned with large corncobs — Laurie’s nod to the empty shelves in Cuba.
Though she had her share of infatuations and romances, notably French New Wave producer Pierre Cottrell and director Barbet Schroeder, her primary relationship, after 2000, was her Whitley Heights home that she described as “my husband.”
Explaining its decor and style to the Los Angeles Times, she declared “I wanted the room to have wit.” And she meant it.
By nature accommodating, Laurie was nevertheless ready to go to war over visual wit and original design. Though hardly my beat, she talked me into chronicling Whitley Heights’ steamy feud with “Whitley Depths” as she described it but mostly over prohibited design elements. Other recruits to the cause were bold-face names like the Coppolas, the Bertoluccis, Wim Wenders, Phillip Noyce et al.
Such was her enchantment with her Whitley Terrace husband/home that she bought it despite a geological assessment that it was slipping off its foundation and likely down the hillside. Even after a kitchen electrical fire in October 2004 burned it down, Laurie rebuilt it to even greater splendor. Of course, there was some magical insurance money that bankrolled the rebuild (and a new foundation) plus her year-long residence in a Chateau Marmont bungalow.
When the insurance money ran out, she kept on giving. Laurie’s self-care was miserly but her affection for chosen friends was reckless and extravagant. Come the holidays, Laurie had gifts for all; the back seat of her leased SUV would be chockablock with exquisitely gift-wrapped boxes from Neiman Marcus.
By 2009, she had no choice but to sell her house/husband. Four years later, she had to close the gallery.
I’m not going to tell you that Laurie didn’t have some big-time problems. She did. She loved Camel cigarettes and Grey Goose vodka — way too much. So she didn’t get the happy Hollywood ending she so deserved.
But while she may have given up on herself, she never gave up on you. She was your confidence when you didn’t have any, your friend when others left you.
If you knew Laurie Frank, you know when it came to banter, she exhaled Dorothy Parker, but when it came to heart, she was all Dolly Parton.
Still, her distinctive brand of optimistic irony never left her.
When told on her last day, that she would be given end-of-life palliative care, Laurie beamed brightly: “You mean I won!”
BY A.L. BARDACH
The Hollywood Reporter
Posted on December 20, 2023
'BINGE' 2023
'BINGE' 2023
Factory Studio Los Angeles
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Posted on December 19, 2023
'FRILLS' 2023
Arts District Los Angeles
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Posted on August 18, 2023
'BLAST' 2023
THREE MINUTES OF WONDERFUL
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Posted on April 23, 2023
BLAST & BANG, in progress
BANG
Oil on linen, 40x60in, 2023
Factory Studio
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Posted on February 4, 2023
BLING BLING, oil on canvas, 2022
Internatonal Contemporary Art Exhibiton “INTERFERENCES”
16.02.2023 – 22.02.2023
M.A.D.S. ART GALLERY MILAN
Through a pilling of dotted lines and multitude of hyper-glow colors - as if he intends to assault the surface with micro-nuclear forces, Lederle constructs a next generation art-scape. When purposely set against a SCHIENA SCURA - dark FOAM bubbles, the painting is calling out a messy, un-ordered free floating imagery of some scenery not quite in focus and frozen in a still frame, although its kinetic forces relentlessly pushing up against its limits. These images take time to absorb, asking you to invest and trust, not speed through in a frenzy. A new-dimensional structure slowly emerges transcending past traditional geometrics.
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Posted on December 28, 2022
THE QUARRY, oil on canvas, Hermann Lederle
M.A.D.S. ART GALLERY
Brain Cake International Art Exhibition
December 28, 2022
Casa Mila La Pedrera Gaudi Room, Barcelona
The Brain Cake event calls on the artist to let himself be seduced by this exquisite moment of escape, find his ingredients, leave his brain free to stop and free itself, finding its relief in the meal or perhaps just in the contemplation of a new artwork.
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Posted on November 28, 2022
Selected works from the new series FOAM by Hermann Lederle shown at International Art Exhibition curated by M.A.D.S. ART GALLERY in Milan, Italy.
The Exhibition opens November 28th through December 3rd 2022
The Exhibition opens November 28th through December 3rd 2022
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Posted on November 28, 2022
'WALL' on interactive wall screen at M.A.D.S ART GALLERY Exhibition.
Hermann Lederle is a German artist living in Los Angeles, USA. The artist is mainly known for his "Pixels" painting, and more recently for his series “Adaptation". The artist has works exhibited in most of the world, and his artistic production is particularly unique and recognizable. Although initially the impression is abstract, Lederle's works feature geometric elements that compose, as a whole, figurative elements. The artistic production of Hermann Lederle brings to mind that of the abstract expressionists, moreover, the works on display on the occasion of "ADRENOCROMO for dinner", recall the pointillism of the neoimpressionists. Hermann Lederle is, for the first time, a guest of an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery and on this occasion he exhibits three artworks with a profound communicative, visual and stylistic impact. All the three artworks are realized with oil on canvas, and that lends the artist the opportunity to transcend the canvas and express his imagination. The colors are vivid and bright and the attention is conveyed through the points and the lines that the artist realizes. These pieces are full of movement and dynamicity, the observer is taken on a trip rich in stimuli from both visuals and aesthetics points of views. As the artist himself explains “ The idea of pixel paintings originated when working with digital images. “It was a discovery. We may have been seeing this way unconsciously since human beings had eyes, but now that we know we can zoom in on something, and then zoom out and see the whole picture, it becomes an awareness we can use to appreciate the pixilated version. Kind of like a primal, pre-conscious experience that relates to the era of technology." Hermann Lederle
Art Curator Martina Viesti
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Posted on September 1, 2022
FOCUS ART FAIR - CARROUSEL DU LOUVRE, PARIS
SEPTEMBER 1 -4 2022
SEPTEMBER 1 -4 2022
'LOOK LOOK' oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches
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Posted on August 7, 2022
'CHARISMA' oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches - in progress
This work by Lederle is nearing its final stages. A new element seems to have been added to the composition. Sketchy at the moment, but once re-worked with details, it will expand the visual of this work by a significant margin. Stay tuned for updates.
This work by Lederle is nearing its final stages. A new element seems to have been added to the composition. Sketchy at the moment, but once re-worked with details, it will expand the visual of this work by a significant margin. Stay tuned for updates.
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Posted on July 16, 2022
'THE FALL' showcased at Factory Place in DTLA.
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Posted on June 17, 2022
'LOOK LOOK' staged next to the artist Hermann Lederle with 'BANKS' on the wall in DTLA.
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Posted on June 1, 2022
'LOOK LOOK' oil on canvas, 40" x 60", 2022 - preview in DTLA
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Posted on April 14, 2022
'LOOK LOOK', oil on canvas, 40 by 60 inches (102x152cm), 2022 - IN PROGRESS
A first amongst the recent work, as this painting is built up over a rich black background and white chalk like lines, followed by layers of floating blots upon blots festooning with color.
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Posted on May 1, 2022
Art Squat Magazine Issue #4 ⍈, May 2022 - featured Interview with artist Hermann Lederle
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Posted on March 20, 2022
'BANKS', oil & gold leaf on canvas, 3 panels 72 by 144 inches (183x366cm), 2022
This painting is exploring - through breakaway elements a freestyle composition of a modern scape.
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Posted on February 18, 2022
'THE FALL', oil on canvas, 72 by 60 inches (183x152cm), 2022, at the Factory Studio
First look at the new painting 'THE FALL' using the paint blots ROTA PIXEL. The oil/ cold wax medium is still in the drying process and some of the hues will slightly change.
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Posted on January 6, 2022
ROTA PIXEL
Close-Up of paint texture of 'THE FALL' painting in progress
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Posted on November 3, 2021
THE SALON - these three paintings are momentarily united by chance, taking us from an early New York work 'FISH FUTURA' in 1985, on the left, to a recent painting from the Adaptation series titled 'BLACKSTAR' in 2021, in the center, and a new canvas in process - with only the underpainting applied yet - tentatively called 'WALL', on the right.
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Posted on September 14, 2021
'CATHEDRAL', oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 by 120 inches (152x305cm), 2021
'CATHEDRAL' has taken its final shape. Amidst all the creative process, stylistic elements emerge in subtle steps quite imperceptible, imprinting forms of a gothic pattern. Apparently this work not just embodies the use of ROTA PIXEL, it embellishes and raises the potential of the blots to new heights and dimensions.
'CATHEDRAL', In Progress Details
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Posted on July 22, 2021
'INTO THE WILD', oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 by 120 inches (152x305cm), 2020
'INTO THE WILD', inspired by the age-old desire of exploration and conquest, is proposing to stage such passage from a merely observational parading of its subject into a purely artistic matter. In a sense, the work tries to let the paint itself thrust the viewer onto mode/style mimicking the traipsing.
'INTO THE WILD', Details
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Posted on July 13, 2021
'ROSEBUDS', oil and gold leaf on canvas, 38 by 50 inches (96x127cm), 2021 - Details +
It might be of innate interest to learn, how this painting’s early stage developed and eventually ended up radically metamorphing opposite style elements, with the result of moving Lederle’s work towards a whole new direction. This appropriation of unrestrained analogues may not surprise, one only needs to look at his previous painting series ‘ADAPTATION’. As contrary as the fan-shaped color fields in the first stage vanish under the ubiquitous ROTA PIXEL blots, they hold their own in the balance. And a new visual is born.
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Posted on June 4, 2021
‘FOREVER YOUNG’, oil on canvas, 50 by 66 inches (127x168cm), 2008 - DETAIL
A rough stencilled word etched into the enigmatic image evoking a textured face or perhaps a landscape. The use of translucent coldwax, a substance that adds body to paint for impasto technique imbues a competitive edge, a toughness. An adolescent young. Forever, a promise as much as a determination of hope. The moment frozen in time, whilst shattering the glass by tempting to halt the future. The paint itself peaks to a crescendo in appearance and purpose.
Also part of the PIXEL series this work leans on Lederle’s early engagement with expressive figuration, but makes a significant shift towards abstraction.
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Posted on JULY 3, 2021
'FANFARE' (INTO THE ROUGH), 2021, by Lederle is a work calling for an expression of pure color, abstract form, and the seductive materiality of paint. On view at the BERLINNA Studio, we are witness to the process of incremental breakthroughs that expand the language of abstraction.
The shapes and strokes do not refer to what’s seen in nature, but rather the paint is the subject.
The shapes and strokes do not refer to what’s seen in nature, but rather the paint is the subject.
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Posted on May 10, 2021
‘ADAPTATION DEAM’, mixed media on canvas stripes over canvas, 50 by 38 inches (127 x 96 cm), 2015 - FULL + DETAIL
The composition of this work is made up from three different canvases laid over a sketched up primary canvas. It was conceived as a counterpoint to be shown next to the much larger work of the three panel 'ADAPTATION' at its premier exhibition in 2015 in Germany. While in this painting a fuzzy figurative element clearly emerges, it is meant to playfully undermine the very purpose of the ADAPTATION series, the deliberate transformation of its figurative concept to an abstract one.
Posted on May 1, 2021
‘THE QUARRY’, oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 x 120 in (152x305cm), 2021 - IN PROGRESS - DETAIL
This three panel painting is a continuation of the latest landscape versus paint-scape exploration by Lederle. It builds upon the fundamentals of the PIXEL series, but with a distinct dot structure and its colors separated into CMYK - similar to a crude inkjet printer. The entire surface appears viewed through a prism, splitting the light along bands of primary hues and tones. Imagine a slice cut from the earth and staged under the sunlight in our present day world, leaving one free to marvel or read.
It tempts to coach the spectator along a path to unearth, uncover long lost history ions ago.
This new technique of semi transparent paint blots marks a beginning of what might be called the ROTA PIXEL painting.
This new technique of semi transparent paint blots marks a beginning of what might be called the ROTA PIXEL painting.
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Posted on April 19, 2021
'ADAPTATION NA NA', mixed media on canvas stripes over canvas, 50 by 38 inches (127 x 96 cm), 2016 - DETAIL
This work from the ADAPTATION SERIES combines two original paintings cut into stripes and reconstructed onto a singles canvas. The surface suggests it was uncovered through scraping and gashing of its heavily textured oil paint. By means of this, Lederle’s innovative composition and technique lays the groundwork for an evolution of new expressive hybrids.
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Posted on April 8, 2021
'INTO THE LAKE', oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 by 120 inches (152x305cm), 2020
One of the latest work by Lederle, ‘INTO THE LAKE’ wants to capture the essence of this actual landscape in symbolic abstraction. J.M.W. Turner was drawn to this location nearly 180 years earlier and produced one of his great works, ‘THE BLUE RIGI’, in 1842.
Lederle’s painting is multifunctional: it is a mood, an atmospheric composition of nature in the abstract as much as it is a homage to Turner’s painting at the same location. Cold wax mixed generously into the oil paint, creates a transparency and light effect surrounding the solid fields of shimmering bluish rock. It is also an attempt by the artist to connect elements from the PIXEL series to his new works.
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Posted on Mar 29, 2021
'SILENCE NO.3’, oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches, 2004 - DETAIL
The SILENCE / WHITE SERIES paintings suggest a reality of transcending portraiture and opaque anecdotes in a near white-out brilliant existence where subject and form disintegrate in a visual grandeur. Lederle directs his choice of subject matter towards an ethereal depiction of anthropomorphic items. The tangle and blur created by the multi layered application of oil paint compounded with coldwax medium over a gold leaf grid, baits the viewer into an emotionally charged process of discovery.
The SILENCE / WHITE SERIES paintings suggest a reality of transcending portraiture and opaque anecdotes in a near white-out brilliant existence where subject and form disintegrate in a visual grandeur. Lederle directs his choice of subject matter towards an ethereal depiction of anthropomorphic items. The tangle and blur created by the multi layered application of oil paint compounded with coldwax medium over a gold leaf grid, baits the viewer into an emotionally charged process of discovery.
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Posted on Mar 21, 2021
'SELF REHAB', oil on canvas, 50 by 38 inches (127x96cm), 2007 - DETAIL
Born out of the 'PIXEL' series paintings, this piece retains the basic elements of shapes and structure familiarized by this work series. But in a twist, hard edgy grooves seemingly carved out of the paint surface suggest a facial outline along with the beat of a phrase laid over. A push to break the constant.
Born out of the 'PIXEL' series paintings, this piece retains the basic elements of shapes and structure familiarized by this work series. But in a twist, hard edgy grooves seemingly carved out of the paint surface suggest a facial outline along with the beat of a phrase laid over. A push to break the constant.
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Posted on Mar 16, 2021
'INTOXICATION', oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches (152x168cm), 2012 - DETAIL
‘INTOXICATION ’, as part of the ‘Footprints on Snow’ paintings exhibited first at Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica, intends to elucidate through its layered construction a distinctive rendering of forms in terms of color and tonality influenced by a broader philosophical view urging to celebrate the beauty of the universe’s fundamental opposition to closure.
‘INTOXICATION ’, as part of the ‘Footprints on Snow’ paintings exhibited first at Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica, intends to elucidate through its layered construction a distinctive rendering of forms in terms of color and tonality influenced by a broader philosophical view urging to celebrate the beauty of the universe’s fundamental opposition to closure.
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Posted on Mar 7, 2021
'I NEED YOU CRAZY', oil and gold leaf on canvas, 60 by 66 inches (152x168cm), 2007 - DETAIL
This heavily textured work was built up over several months allowing its forms to mutate and wander about changing hues and color tones as much as de-emphasizing its core phrase. Some PIXEL elements are retained from the earlier work by Lederle, yet the lines and shapes are less structured and more intuitively rendered. The bits of colors seem to barely hold on to its underpinnings, wanting to break away stimulated by a sudden burst of creative inspiration.
This heavily textured work was built up over several months allowing its forms to mutate and wander about changing hues and color tones as much as de-emphasizing its core phrase. Some PIXEL elements are retained from the earlier work by Lederle, yet the lines and shapes are less structured and more intuitively rendered. The bits of colors seem to barely hold on to its underpinnings, wanting to break away stimulated by a sudden burst of creative inspiration.
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Posted on Feb 28, 2021
'BLUE CIRCLES', oil on canvas, 66 by 66 inches (168x168cm), 2001 - DETAIL
The PIXEL series constantly plays with form and duality of superimposed layers of varying focal lengths rendered subject matter. The construct aims to nonchalantly free its spectator of foreordained conception of what one chooses to see.
The PIXEL series constantly plays with form and duality of superimposed layers of varying focal lengths rendered subject matter. The construct aims to nonchalantly free its spectator of foreordained conception of what one chooses to see.
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Posted on Feb 22, 2021
'VERVE' , oil on canvas, 50 by 38 inches (127x96cm), 2012 - DETAIL
Lederle’s abstract paintings are moored in enthusiasm and an intense occupation with the routine of creation itself. This featured canvas reveals Lederle's intrenched exploration of line and form through color. He is emphasizing matters which swell to the veneer only to evaporate and materialize elsewhere again that seesaws between illusionary and metaphorical, thereby examining the interstices segregating abstraction and figuration.
Lederle’s abstract paintings are moored in enthusiasm and an intense occupation with the routine of creation itself. This featured canvas reveals Lederle's intrenched exploration of line and form through color. He is emphasizing matters which swell to the veneer only to evaporate and materialize elsewhere again that seesaws between illusionary and metaphorical, thereby examining the interstices segregating abstraction and figuration.
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Posted on Feb 14, 2021
'VOYAGE', oil on canvas, 48 by 48 inches (122x122cm), 2002
A painting for the purpose of itself. This work, part of the PIXEL series, was created out of the process of painting, litterally the medium itself, and much less out of a perception of concepts or constructs of abstractions. It is a sensory exploitation of material and matter. Any preexisting cultural themes and theories aside, the work here merely presents and does not intend to explain cultural, aesthetic norms.
The painting is an elemental structure occupied by visual instances that declare their ambiguous presence: superimpositions and divisions that are fundamentally unimportant - the surface divided into squares - produced within the material itself and not overlaid artificially.
A painting for the purpose of itself. This work, part of the PIXEL series, was created out of the process of painting, litterally the medium itself, and much less out of a perception of concepts or constructs of abstractions. It is a sensory exploitation of material and matter. Any preexisting cultural themes and theories aside, the work here merely presents and does not intend to explain cultural, aesthetic norms.
The painting is an elemental structure occupied by visual instances that declare their ambiguous presence: superimpositions and divisions that are fundamentally unimportant - the surface divided into squares - produced within the material itself and not overlaid artificially.
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Posted on Feb 7, 2021
'FLOWER TARGET', oil on canvas, 66 by 60 inches( 168x152cm), 2001
The painting titled ‘Flower Target’ might be one of the classic pieces by Hermann Lederle were he is experimenting with the concept of dematerialization, proclaiming that painting should avoid any references to experience outside the material presence of the work itself, but simultaneously rebelling against these accepted rules. Instead of subscribing to conventional wisdom of non-representational formalism, he challenges a need to acknowledge that the creative processes were related to content.
The painting titled ‘Flower Target’ might be one of the classic pieces by Hermann Lederle were he is experimenting with the concept of dematerialization, proclaiming that painting should avoid any references to experience outside the material presence of the work itself, but simultaneously rebelling against these accepted rules. Instead of subscribing to conventional wisdom of non-representational formalism, he challenges a need to acknowledge that the creative processes were related to content.
Lederle’s painting evokes a variety of associations based on an elementary, geometrical vocabulary: circles, grids, squares and stripes. Then there is also a representation of figurative content. The simplicity of the forms is played down by a deceptive form of nonchalance. The contours are not clearly defined. Amorphous forms appear to melt into each other like paraffin. Blots of color can be discerned, sharp edges percolate for no apparent reason, and the anatomy of the brushstrokes is always discernible.
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Posted on Jan 31, 2021
'I WANT YOU NOW', oil on canvas, 50" by 38" (127x96cm), 2007 - DETAIL
This work by Hermann Lederle represents a continuation of the ‘Faces’ series, evolving out of his PIXEL paintings, while simultaneously accelerating the concept of the multi-layered imagery of faces over faces by contrasting superimposed outlines of a worded phrase. It builds a crescendo of style elements within the same artwork seeking to engage, perhaps interrogate about its ideas and cultural intention in this latest iteration.
This work by Hermann Lederle represents a continuation of the ‘Faces’ series, evolving out of his PIXEL paintings, while simultaneously accelerating the concept of the multi-layered imagery of faces over faces by contrasting superimposed outlines of a worded phrase. It builds a crescendo of style elements within the same artwork seeking to engage, perhaps interrogate about its ideas and cultural intention in this latest iteration.
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Posted on Jan 24, 2021
'INTO THE WILD', in progress - Detail
'INTO THE WILD', inspired by the age-old desire of exploration and conquest.
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Posted on Jan 16, 2021
'DAWN', oil on canvas, 50 by 38 inches, 2000
Lederle’s ‘Pixel’ paintings exemplifies a turning point in the artist’s ability to shift between abstraction and figuration. This moment marks the departure from the expressionist figurative work of the artist’s New York period. The language of figures gives away to more lyrical forms of abstract fields and colors.
Lederle’s ‘Pixel’ paintings exemplifies a turning point in the artist’s ability to shift between abstraction and figuration. This moment marks the departure from the expressionist figurative work of the artist’s New York period. The language of figures gives away to more lyrical forms of abstract fields and colors.
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Posted on Jan 9, 2021
'MODIGLIANI MONET ME MONOTRIBES 5', oil on canvas, 60 by 36 inches (152x91cm), 2019 - DETAIL
While it might jolt to see this painting added to the works usually associated with the artist Hermann Lederle, it quite certainly exposes his desire to use a transfiguring paint technique elevating the subject to beyond what is literally there. It begs the question, is it a portrait or a symphony of color and paint? Is it a homage to past famous artist or is it significantly different and not to be confused for a copy? Perhaps, it is proposed as an experiment and likely to demonstrate a continued progression of paint itself as subject and tool.
While it might jolt to see this painting added to the works usually associated with the artist Hermann Lederle, it quite certainly exposes his desire to use a transfiguring paint technique elevating the subject to beyond what is literally there. It begs the question, is it a portrait or a symphony of color and paint? Is it a homage to past famous artist or is it significantly different and not to be confused for a copy? Perhaps, it is proposed as an experiment and likely to demonstrate a continued progression of paint itself as subject and tool.
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Posted on Jan 2, 2021
'EFFACÉ', oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches (152x168cm), 2011
This painting was first exhibited at Frank Pictures Gallery In Santa Monica 2012 at the show called ‘Footprints On Snow’. The motifs of the works and in particular the painting ‘Effacé’ are grounded in the dynamic interplay between binary opposites of the geometric and organic. A back and forth that animate from the conscious to the unconscious mimicking the process of its creation. Providence and random assigned in the same competing space - the metaphor of a coin flip for randomness remains unquestioned.
This painting was first exhibited at Frank Pictures Gallery In Santa Monica 2012 at the show called ‘Footprints On Snow’. The motifs of the works and in particular the painting ‘Effacé’ are grounded in the dynamic interplay between binary opposites of the geometric and organic. A back and forth that animate from the conscious to the unconscious mimicking the process of its creation. Providence and random assigned in the same competing space - the metaphor of a coin flip for randomness remains unquestioned.
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Posted on Dec 26, 2020
Artist Hermann Lederle is recognized by his peers for the innovative process of applying paint to the canvas and transforming its conceptual properties. In the process of cutting and re-assembling the stripes of one of his own painting onto a second canvas he strives to arrive at an intensely nuanced expression juxtaposed to its inherit mechanical automation. While this technique is highlighted through the more recent series 'ADAPTATION', it has had its root long before in the “Pixel” series, although with different aesthetic philosophy and formal concerns. Now again in this latest work in progress 'INTO THE WILD' featured here, this process of paint application is slightly changed. The canvas won’t be cut up and re-assembled, but the successive stage of layers are designed to transfigure the paint in a gestural abstraction over time not unlike the stripes assemblage seen in 'ADAPTATION'. The picture is showing the work in its very early progression.
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Posted on Dec 16, 2020
ADAPTATION 'SPLIT', mixed media on canvas stripes over canvas, 50 by 38 inches, 2015
German artist Hermann Lederle is a visual composer of line, shape, and color. His gestural paintings lead the viewer across the canvas in a dance of vibrant hues and undulating forms. Often working at a large scale, Lederle treats the canvas as a space, moving across the perimeter of his works as he intuitively applies paint to the surface.
German artist Hermann Lederle is a visual composer of line, shape, and color. His gestural paintings lead the viewer across the canvas in a dance of vibrant hues and undulating forms. Often working at a large scale, Lederle treats the canvas as a space, moving across the perimeter of his works as he intuitively applies paint to the surface.
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Posted on Dec 9, 2020
Re-introducing a painting by artist Hermann Lederle from the period 2013. The piece titled 'L' APPEL DU VIDE' can be seen as the coda to the "Footprints on Snow" series of Lederle's work exhibited at Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica, California the year before in 2012. It ties in conceptually and aesthetically to the earlier works, yet in a more freely executed paint application style.
L’ APPEL DU VIDE, oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches, 2013
- That tiny voice that tells you to jerk the steering wheel just to the right and take a flying leap... the call of the Siren song - L’ Appel Du Vide
L’ APPEL DU VIDE, oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches, 2013
- That tiny voice that tells you to jerk the steering wheel just to the right and take a flying leap... the call of the Siren song - L’ Appel Du Vide
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Posted on Nov 30, 2020
The 'END OF SUMMER' painting is in its second stage. The stripes of linen canvas have been assembled onto the canvas panels. It's starting to take shape and reveal the intended effect. A sort of pixelated impressionism. The painting has two panels measuring 60 by 96 inches. A third and final layer of a semi transparent medium applied over the stripes is going to be next.
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Posted on Nov 23, 2020
Beginning in 2016, this Limited Edition Serigraph series by Artist Hermann Lederle was produced at Fine Art Printing House Hans-Peter Haas in Stuttgart Germany over a span of four years. Here at the atelier HPH Siebdruck, known for its outstanding quality silkscreen print editions of renowned artists worldwide, Hans-Peter Haas has forged the Serigraphs by Lederle titled COLORBLOTS, COLORWEAVES, COLORSWEEPS, COLORNOTES and COLORFINITS. The series are available to view at Berlinna Gallery and can be purchased on SAATCHI ART online.
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Posted on Nov 17, 2020
'BE WITH ME'...
Some of the larger canvases have a vital, explosive energy -- the large pixels radiating outward rhythmically, like a waltz, suggest a reserved spontaneity. At the center there is calm, control, and powerful emotion. They can be puzzle-like, with a trompe-l’oeuil quality. Figures or shapes disguised within the painting are not at first apparent, but once seen cannot be unseen. Figures float to the surface and then sink back.
Image pictured is the work title 'BE WITH ME' by Hermann Lederle, oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches, 2007.
Some of the larger canvases have a vital, explosive energy -- the large pixels radiating outward rhythmically, like a waltz, suggest a reserved spontaneity. At the center there is calm, control, and powerful emotion. They can be puzzle-like, with a trompe-l’oeuil quality. Figures or shapes disguised within the painting are not at first apparent, but once seen cannot be unseen. Figures float to the surface and then sink back.
Image pictured is the work title 'BE WITH ME' by Hermann Lederle, oil on canvas, 60 by 66 inches, 2007.
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"Lederle’s work has a 3-D, almost architectural reality," says gallerist Laurie Frank, "achieved without employing geometry. He creates a progression of inner space expanse that the paintings invite you to enter as an explorer evoking the thrilling sensation of stepping on virgin ground."
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Posted on Oct 27, 2020
A throwback to the Tribeca loft studio in New York City gives the new Adaptation series its beginnings. There is some time between then and what's going on at Berlinna Factory Loft now. Let's consider this.
The figures seen in the work of Schnabel, Palladino and Clemente are taciturn, drawn, permanently in crisis, as if they have embarked upon a bleak search for meaning in an otherwise solipsistic life. By the wholesale appropriation of images drawn from mass media, popular culture and art history, these esthetic scavengers, particularly Clemente, set themselves adrift across cultures and styles in an attempt to recover timeless truths on behalf of the modern experience.
Lederle’s work, too, falls within the ambit of modern expressionism in that it demonstrates, to a certain degree, the failure of traditional symbols to move us and the need to galvanize them with a shot of heroic energy. The result, ironically, is purely a superficial attraction. Take, for example, Election (1985), which presents symbols in search of a context in what amounts to an iconographical shopping list. It includes a tongue-tied figure with awkward hands, acting like a wallflower at a dance. Beside him hovers a fish and one of those little Keith Haring "Gumby" figures, looking surprisingly enervated. This is a spent art, as if the artist is waiting for someone (but who?) to pull the strings so his paintings can start moving. But there is more to Lederle’s work than this.
The figures seen in the work of Schnabel, Palladino and Clemente are taciturn, drawn, permanently in crisis, as if they have embarked upon a bleak search for meaning in an otherwise solipsistic life. By the wholesale appropriation of images drawn from mass media, popular culture and art history, these esthetic scavengers, particularly Clemente, set themselves adrift across cultures and styles in an attempt to recover timeless truths on behalf of the modern experience.
Lederle’s work, too, falls within the ambit of modern expressionism in that it demonstrates, to a certain degree, the failure of traditional symbols to move us and the need to galvanize them with a shot of heroic energy. The result, ironically, is purely a superficial attraction. Take, for example, Election (1985), which presents symbols in search of a context in what amounts to an iconographical shopping list. It includes a tongue-tied figure with awkward hands, acting like a wallflower at a dance. Beside him hovers a fish and one of those little Keith Haring "Gumby" figures, looking surprisingly enervated. This is a spent art, as if the artist is waiting for someone (but who?) to pull the strings so his paintings can start moving. But there is more to Lederle’s work than this.
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Posted on Oct 23, 2020
The 'WALLART' at the Berlinna Factory Loft Gallery features some of the serigraph editions created by Hermann Lederle at the fine art printing atelier of Hans-Peter Haas in Stuttgart Germany. HPH Siebdruck is world renowned for its superior quality of art silkscreen printing. Among some of the works seen here are the COLORBLOTS, COLORNOTES, COLORSWEEPS, COLORWEAVES and COLORFINITS series.
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Posted on Oct 16, 2020
ADAPTATION ‘CIELO EAST’ by Hermann Lederle | 2016 served as an inspiration/visualization for composer Steffen Wick to produce Crosscurrents. The art piece is constructed from two original paintings on canvas, which are cut into stripes and reassembled on new canvases. Almost metaphorically speaking the composer states this. Composition 2.1 – two composers – one work The unusual combination of large brass ensemble and symphony orchestra follows the rare combination of two composers working on one piece (Steffen Wick & Florian Ross). Crosscurrents explores the possibilities of compositional collaboration and brings together different musical styles. Distinct musical islands are interlinked and enable the entering of unknown terrain.
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Posted on Oct 10, 2020
'RIPPLES' and 'BLOOM' are two paintings created by cutting the original paintings on canvas into stripes and assembling the cut pieces onto a new canvas. This process allows for the painterly strokes to be sliced and offset to create a unique appearance of abstraction.
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Posted on Oct 1, 2020
A new three panel canvas piece is starting to take shape. The title of the work will be 'Into The Wild'. At this stage, the painting is sketched out and the underlaying brush work is complete. The next layer will be applied with the knife. This is where it's at now.
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Posted on Sep 25, 2020
'END OF SUMMER'... this is happening right now at the factory gallery atelier. It's a new piece by artist Hermann Lederle. It is in progress. Stay tuned
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Posted on Sep 19, 2020
'ADAPTATION' is massiv. Measuring five and a half feet by ten feet, this totemic monument doesn’t just envelop you, it anchors you to the ground. Reminiscent of partially open Levelor blinds, a network of dense and narrow vertical bands sweep across the canvas. There’s more weight at the center; this makes the surface quiver and shimmer, like water burbling over an outcropping of coral just beneath the surface of a roiling sea. Without fully revealing it, the piece suggests an expanse of pictorial depth. It accommodates something that is turbulent and veiled, expressionistic and controlled. The work corrals something prior and powerful, something that had once been deeply felt and is now remembered. By James Scarborough
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