Sebastian Bieniek: fame and disgrace
Everyone seems to be talking about a Berlin based artist Sebastian Bieniek; oh yes, even Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol.
The first time I’ve heard about Sebastian, was in April 2013, when Deutsche Bank has announced an opening of their new Kunsthalle (Art Hall) in Berlin. On April the 5th Kunsthalle was accepting everybody’s art just for one day; until the space is full. People came early in the morning and queued for hours. There was also a cash prize of €500 for the best piece.
And here comes Sebastian with his golden canvas, which has nothing more but birds shit and the 3 arrows pointing at it. He starts telling everyone, that his piece has been selected for the prize, they can all go home. It was his performance, art performance. I am not the art critic, but that looks to me like self-PR and not a performance, because if it is, then Sebastian has successfully killed its meaning.
Later in a year I saw his doublefaced girl on several Berlin Facebook art pages I follow. And I thought:”a little bit disturbing, but makes you think.” However later you wonder why is he using this same method, this same simple childish nose line and red lips; it’s getting repetitive.
Recently I spotted something what I have never seen an artist to do for the fame sake before. Many famous dead artists’ pages were actively spammed by Sebastian works; the same images, the same text. It became more ridiculous when Frida Kahlo’s picture would have a title “Inspired by Sebastian Bieniek”… Is this a virus? Did you hack the pages of the dead, Sebastian? Or did you pay for it and that is your new online performance? You might want the scandal and to be talked about, that’s fine, but the dead deserve to rest in peace. If Frida was alive, she would have rinsed her mouth with tequila and spit it on you. Andy most likely would have found it amusing, but that’s only because Sebastian tries to go Warhol way. He tries to be controversial the naive way because he believes naivety is the creative power. Maybe Warhol was not naive, but definitely simple in his usage of “common, everyday, degenerate things of America in order to make a simple, yet bold statement.” Bieniek’s doublefaced project also focuses on an every day element – a girl in bed, a girl smoking, a girl in a bathroom, a girl on the underground etc. “See the unusual in usual” – says his Facebook page. Andy was a master of the outrageous and self-irony, Sebastian uses the same principle.
I am not here to judge his art, i will leave it to experts, but as an artist myself I perceive what I see, and spamming Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Frida Kahlo , Larry Gagosian, Jasper Johns, Julian Schnabel and other pages is a disgrace; people following these pages have not chosen to see your work.
P.S. I was banned from Andy Warhol’s page on Facebook, after I posted the upper banner. Thanks.
And here is the list of the pages Mr. Selfexposure got under control:
fuck Sebastian Bieniek
Andy Warhol
Avant Hard 
well this guy seems like a pretty boring no-hoper Pathetic and childish
Such a pathetic way of doing PR for himself and his art… unethical, dirty and a little bit sad. I also got banned when I linked to this blog post. Love Frida Kahlo, but am no fan of Sebastian Bienieks methods. “Frida Kahlo inspired by Sebastian Bieniek”?! Poor Frida, being used like this. Good digging on your part though!
Thanks for stepping by Juliana. It is sad what he does, it is not even funny or original in anyway. Unless he is checking us all laughing in front of his pc.
THANK YOU for writing this post. I thought I was the only one who noticed! This guy pisses me off. We must be able to do something to expose him?!
He’s got the world’s approval, will be hard to go against him. I’d just ignore him full stop.
He makes the world a little bit funnier and a few of his paintings are good enugh for a my walls if i had the money who is neaded. The old greece had a lot of people with his guts.