from the series "Brave New INSTA World", 2026, Oil and cut-out on multiplex panel, 125 x 60 cm
The “Brave New INSTA World” series of works moves away from the pure nude and directly references photos or video stills from Instagram. What self-image do primarily young women project in public? How do they want to be perceived? Social media has radically changed the possibilities of creating and publishing an idealized image of ourselves. Consequently, the question arises: Is it real, or is it just a Reel?
2024, Oil and cut-out on multiplex, 120 x 90 cm (Private collection)
The artistic NUDE as a challenge: nudity as a continuous loop in film, television, photography, fashion. Nudity as an expression of freedom and self-realization, but also presented to the predatory gaze. The NUDE as self-representation in social media, pandering to prescribed beauty ideals that must be adhered to. Longing, desire, fantasies, even immoral ones, which is why men often feel caught in their voyeurism, whereas women feel seen. That’s why I have more female collectors than male collectors. What’s exciting for me: painting the nude. The painted nude is boring to me. That’s why I removed it from the pictures. And the viewer is left to themselves. To themselves, their imagination, their fantasy.
from the cycle "DOGGERBANK - A Search for Traces", 2021, Oil on plywood, 83 x 125 cm
In my cycle of works “DOGGERBANK – A Search for Traces,” I dedicate myself to the life of my grandfather, Gerhard Blunk. Since 2020, oil paintings have been created that, together with original documents and texts, provide insight into the life and death of a simple sailor amidst a world gone mad.
This illuminates a largely unknown side of naval warfare, which extends its lines far beyond the war, indeed, into our present time. And at the same time, I am searching for an answer: Were my grandparents fellow travelers, sympathizers, or convinced National Socialists?
Oil and cut-out on multiplex, 60 x 84 cm, 2015 (Private collection)
In “Iconography of War,” I explore an aspect that has played an important role in wars for centuries: namely, the images we create of them. I don’t paint war pictures, but pictures of war pictures. It is striking that we are once again being shown a very strange image of war. Our wars are highly aesthetic. Heroic, sometimes almost romantic, or relaxed, like the soldier casually smoking a cigarette on Saddam Hussein’s palace sofa after Baghdad fell. These are images of war, just as our last emperor liked to present them to his people. War is always bloody and cruel only on the other side, when we want to show why our war is just and good.
The imagery that our politics and media use today serves propaganda once again – and leads to us, who have not (yet) experienced war ourselves, having a grotesquely distorted image of war.
The Impact of Images
“Ultimately, the exploration of the impact of images is an essential component of Steffen Blunk’s artistic creation. In doing so, he succeeds in luring the viewer into his painterly finely differentiated pictorial worlds, only to then confront them with the dynamics of their own memories or ideas. Entirely in the spirit of the American image scholar W. J. T. Mitchell: ‘They (images) are ghostly apparitions that materialize before our eyes or in our imagination.’ (W.J.T. Mitchell: The Life of Images, Munich 2008). The works of Steffen Blunk possess this potential, and that is what makes them essential in the age of the media flood of images.”
(from: “The Impact of Images” by Andrea-Katharina Schraepler)
Upcoming Exhibitions
Grandma, Grandpa, and Evil Itself
5.9. – October 11, 2026
Linda Blüml | Steffen Blunk | Detlef David | David Dibiah | Andreas Helle | Halina Hildebrand | Stephanie Hüllmann | Kaj Osteroth | Thomas Wernicke | Ila Wingen
Curator: Steffen Blunk
Opening:
Saturday, September 5, 3 PM
Finissage and Reading:
Sunday, October 11, 1 PM to 5 PM | Reading: 3 PM
NEUE GALERIE of the Teltow-Fläming District
Gutenbergstraße 1
15806 Zossen (Wünsdorf-Waldstadt)
033702 21810
www.teltow-flaeming.de/neue-galerie
Opening Hours
Thu. to Sun. 1 PM to 5 PM, also on public holidays
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
who is m/f/d in this land?
9.10. – November 1, 2026
Frauke Beeck | Steffen Blunk | Catherine Bourdon | David Dibiah | Anja Eichler | Peter Hintz | Kama Jackowska | Maria Korporal | Petra Lindenmeyer | Peter Möller | Agnes Pschorn | Sandra Schmidt | Marianne Stoll | Corinna Rosteck
Curators: Frauke Beeck and Anja Eichler
Opening:
Friday, October 9, 7 PM
Coffee & Cake Gathering:
Sunday, November 1, 3 PM
Verein Berliner Künstler
Schöneberger Ufer 57
10785 Berlin
https://vbk-art.de
Opening Hours
Wed. to Sun. 3 PM to 6 PM
Learn Oil Painting
Individual and Small Group Lessons
In my studio in Wriezen, I offer individual lessons as well as lessons for small groups of up to three people – exclusively for oil painting. Appointments can be arranged freely, and you can start at any time. Price upon request. If interested, please write to info@steffen-blunk.de or call: 0179 9070124.
Artwork Reviews
Do you already have experience with painting but are unsure how to proceed? In an approximately 90-minute conversation, you can show me your previous works and receive honest feedback. Cost: €90. If interested, please write to info@steffen-blunk.de or call: 0179 9070124.
