Wolfgang Brenner draws, writes, paints, leaves traces, mounts, arranges, finds material, leaves traces. He experiments, but still follows traditional aesthetic styles and thus sketches out his own artistic language.
In his art, he materializes his perception of this world as well as of his own surreal imagination. Those works contain all sorts of contradictions: the realistic as well as the poetic, the earnest and the cheerful, philosophic and ordinary, the transient and the seemingly timeless, meaningful as well as banal things.
Exploring the works of Wolfgang Brenner means to start an aesthetic journey, it means to experiment with thoughts and imaginary pictures, to try out interpretations as well as just leave uninterpretable things stand as they are.

Poetry Project IV 2011 - Ithaka

 

 

 

 

 

'Viva la Vida'

mixed media on canvas
(3)40 40cm

 

Sculptures I 2010

 

'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi'

Installation
100 700cm

 

 

Homage to Delft symposium 2009

'signs of his selection in the overwhelming presence of elements of the existing world'

The artstic objects of Wolfgang Brenner, be it paintings, photographs, etc., are related to his realities. So they are signs of his selection in the overwhelming presence of elements of the existing world. But this is not sufficient to his personal semiotics; he covers the representation with other signs, words, as a kind of commentary, reflection, a critical cry-out maybe. Thus he shows his fundamental unwiillingness to stay indifferent when confronted with the realities of the world, including his own vision of it.
It has been said of his work, by Helga Kämpf-Jansen, that he is ‘in constant deliberation’ with his own vision, and that, in a sense, he is his own art-jury. This critical attitude is a sign of Wolfgang’s commitment to the world and at same time towards his own relationship with it.

Recycle Art - symposium 2008

'recycling is a cycle from ‘to become’ till ‘to pass away’'

For Brenner recycling is a continuum from to become till to pass away.
He considers the infinite nature of being a teacher. He believes that recycling is a natural process: ‘One learns from the past and gets new ideas for now and later.’
Brenner has worked with recycled materials for a long time. Materials like wood, lost and found objects, all sorts of paper and cloth bags appeal to him. The material has to have a history. For him colour is as important as the object for inspiration. Depending on the items, collages, assemblies or statues will be made, based around natural colours. Time is an important dimension within his work. The object says something of the period in which it has been used and Brenner tries to expose this to his audience. He also uses words and letters to enter into a discussion with the spectator, but he does not impose his views upon them.
In 2006 he received an award in Germany for recycle art and in 2008 he was awarded the Paderborner Kunstpreis.