Reiner Heidorn talks art
How did you come to be an artist?
I’ve started with drawing and watercolour in my early youth, first I had large tables with all kinds of ink, pencils and brushes, than it became a room and for the last 25 years I have always had a studio for oil painting, which is now a large space – this has always been a very normal part of my life. Im autodidact, but had the chance to work with professional artists in my youth, which taught me on a deeper level.
Reiner Heidorn in his studio
What are your preferred mediums?
I only work with oil colours in large scaled, expressionistic works.
Where are you based & what is your studio like?
My studio is an empty factory hall in the heart of Bavaria (next to Munich), with large windows and a record player with classic records only. I work quick, but in series, which means, I often do the same painting four or five times at once. The best results remain for exhibitions, the other paintings get redone. If nothing satisfying (for me) has happened, I work on the whole series again.
What are the main ideas in it and have they changed over time?
In the 80s and 90s I really was into narrative paintings, which had no impact or earned any interest, like all the narrative stars (Andre Butzer, George Condo) are experience today. At a certain point in my development I had a strong wish to create something that transports the idea of disappearance, of dissolution. So I did everything possible wrong in oil painting just for the experience of having a borderless space with a universe of my own. I established all the mistakes into my own technique and work on every painting with the pointillism of microscope images from plants and freshwater. I only focus on botanic. Along with that I have invented some manga-style characters and animals, which are also a part of my series.
What art do you most identify with, and what work do you most enjoy doing?
I really enjoy mostly Asian landscape art and the European expressionists. I use only the inspiration of my direct environment during the seasons and create smallest critters and bubbly spaces in large paintings, which are featuring the universe in a pond for the whole world. I mostly enjoy all kinds of green and the moment, when the thousands of speckles are opening a door to a 3D world.
Which artists do you look to for inspiration or have had a strong influence in your work?
I admire Herbert Brandl, Hans Hartung, Martin Kippenberger, and mentioned Asian art scene. But in recent years I’ve focussed more on science images about chlorophyll or freshwater. This is may not be very creative, but I really found satisfaction in my own established alchemy with pigments, oil colours, turpentine and linseed oil. So the technique is one of the main interests in my work.
Where do you show your work?
I’ve had shows in Atlanta, Dubai, Paris, Germany, Austria and recently in Philadelphia. 2020 I will be showing in LA, Shanghai and Taipei. When people are confronted with my canvases in person, they all are touched by the same feeling where ever they are based in the world. I think this is really interesting that they have the same feeling, like remembering diving into a lake in their youth, walking in the rain, or they dreamed about something like this. After so many exhibitions and shows I see one thing for sure: Standing in front of my work really touches people emotionally.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am starting a series of paintings of birds with human faces in my own jungle universe for a show in the Lei Xiang Gallery in Taipei in April. I also have planned a series of huge and narrow works with the subject ‘Treehouse”. Alongside that I regularly collaborate with art dealers and curators over the world and we’ll see, what else can do together.
Follow him on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reinerheidorn/
Or visit his website http://reinerheidorn.com/