Cornelia Renz

A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to Berlin. I met him for a drink on Brick Lane, and he told me what it was like there. "The whole city is just like a giant shoreditch...but better". My first thoughts were that being like Shoreditch could not be a good thing, and that surely he meant that being better meant it was even more pretentious. In fact, he told me, it was not. In Shoreditch everyone is trying to be someone or something they are not, constantly trying to trump the next guy on who's jeans are tighter, who's hairstyle is more bohemian, and who's New Era hat looks more out of place with the rest of their charity shop outfit than the next. According to my friend this was not so true of Berlin. "Its still all pretty underground over there...people are a lot more friendly and open to each others style and creativity". Either way, I'm not sure if the labels of 'underground' or 'a giant shoreditch' lend any credibility to anything, other than the guarantee of finding at least something in the haystack of self-appreciation that goes a little further than simply stroking its own ego.

Cornelia Renz is one Bavarian artist out of Berlin who fits such a description. Her work is inspired by her Catholic upbringing, and show a comic style reflective of carnivalesque, nightmarish medieval wall panels and the Mexican Day of Death. Check out more of Renz' huge and beautiful works at the Goff+Rosenthal website.