Dennis Scholl

Dennis Scholl was born in Hünfeld in 1980 and lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg under Franz Erhard Walther, Andreas Slominski, and Michael Diers. Scholl first became known for his graphite drawings and charcoal works, but more recently he has expanded his oeuvre to include large-format paintings and woodcuts. His rich visual language is based on myths and Christian iconography. His most recent solo exhibitions include M+B Los Angeles, Kunstverein Göttingen, DSC Gallery, Prague, and Museum Modern Art, Hünfeld.

Since 2024, Dennis Scholl has also been producing extraordinary woodcuts. These represent an extension of his artistic practice: they utilize the graphic appeal of carving, the contrasting interplay of color and uncarved surface, and the materiality of the wood grain and tool marks. In his prints, Scholl transfers his interest in symbolic images, ritual gestures, and subtle narratives to the respective medium. The format of the woodcut sharpens the sense of contours and silhouettes: the carved block emphasizes the boundary between motif and emptiness, figure and surface. His prints often appear as concentrated moments, partly narrative, partly dreamlike, in which ritual, memory, and identity merge.

Dennis Scholl paints and draws pictures full of tenderness and compassion. The figures are his equals. It almost seems as if they are involved in the scenes being created. The world that has been growing in Scholl's studio for years is full of warmth. At the same time, it repeatedly harbors moments of heightened danger and violence. Perhaps to dispel these, the figures depicted often perform rituals and are rarely idle.