LOS ANGELES, CA.- Like a favorite poem, Friedrich Kunath’s works poignantly yet playfully distill the fundamentals of human emotion—desire, loneliness, and anxiety—creating comically tragic scenes in which human beings try to find their way in the world. Employing an impressive range of mediums—drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and neon—Kunath continuously takes up such subjects as the solitary being in nature, the ebb and flow of time, the emotional poignancy of nature, and relationships and the heartbreak they can create. Kunath will create a salon-like installation by covering the Hammer’s lobby walls with pinstriped and plaid suit fabrics and hanging numerous variably sized works throughout, creating a world both fantastical and quotidian revolving around a number of middle-aged male characters struggling to define their lives in a sea of uncertainty.

Friedrich Kunath was born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1974 and lives in Los Angeles. He was educated at Peter Mertes Stipendium, Kunstverein Bonn in Bonn, Germany and at Arbeitsstipendium der Jürgen Ponto-Stiftlung, in Frankurt am Main, Germany. Kunath’s work has been presented in one-person exhibitions at Kunstalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany; Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany; and Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, and has been included in numerous thematic exhibitions such as the 11th Triennale für Kleinplastik, Fellbach, Germany; Grin & Bear It: Cruel humor in art and life, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; The Eternal Flame, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland; Life on Mars: the 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Learn to read, Tate Modern, London; and The Gravity in Art, De Appel, Amsterdam. Hammer Projects: Friedrich Kunath is organized by Hammer senior curator Anne Ellegood.

Hammer Projects is a series of exhibitions focusing primarily on the work of emerging artists.