{"id":130461,"date":"2025-05-25T10:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T10:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/130461\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T10:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T10:59:10","slug":"simon-lehner-gets-first-uk-solo-exhibition-of-peasants-basterds-at-edel-assanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/130461\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Lehner gets first UK solo exhibition- Of Peasants & Basterds at Edel Assanti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edel Assanti <\/a>to present Vienna-based artist Simon Lehner\u2019s first UK solo exhibition, Of Peasants & Basterds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Working across sculpture, painting and installation, Simon Lehner\u2019s practice interrogates the relationship between the image-onslaught of the information age and psychic inner life. Lehner\u2019s research probes algorithm-accelerated echo chambers as they evolve into mainstream social doctrines Lehner\u2019s interest in internet subcultures first emerged from a desire to come to terms with his own psychology and childhood experiences. His inquiry addresses the construction of identity occurring in these spaces: unattainable ideals are magnified; individuals are marginalised from the group; alternative communities are formed, grounded in a reversal of the proscribed value system.<\/p>\n

Lehner\u2019s focus on groups that proliferate toxic ideals of hyper-masculinity is a case-study in the weaponisation of images, and the power imbalance between the individual and the technologies that now drive collective conscious ness. Of Peasants & Basterds expands Lehner\u2019s inquiry into the role of pictures as instruments of manipulation, beginning with a reference to the history of painting.<\/p>\n

From the 16th to19th centuries, \u201cpeasant paintings\u201d were commissioned by the ruling class as a pre-photographic means of visualising the lives of ordinary people. Lehner\u2019s most recent work observes that today\u2019s kings are a coterie of male tech CEOs, whose surveillance tools amass an infinite datascape representative of our collective psyche; in this analogy, the peasants are their users.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Simon Lehner, White knight II (End of the road), 2025, acrylic on unique canvas, lens-based CNC painting, 120 x 150 cm. Copyright the artist, courtesy Edel Assanti <\/p>\n

Lehner\u2019s new works pivot on compositions derived from historical paintings, supplanting peasants with avatars summoned from the depths of the manosphere. In this world, Patrick Bateman \u2013 a regularly transmutating protagonist in Lehner\u2019s oeuvre, seeded from Christian Bale\u2019s portrayal of the character in American Psycho \u2013 is an aspirational male archetype, both aesthetically and behaviourally. Bateman\u2019s character has evolved from an internet meme into a symbol and role model within the incel communities, embodying their ideals of how a man should treat women and navigate the world around him.<\/p>\n

Members of these online subcultures not only strive to physically resemble him, but also to adopt his behavioural traits \u2013 embracing stoic character ideals and, often, misogynistic perspectives.<\/p>\n

An animatronic humanoid sculpture inhabits the middle of the exhibition subtly breathing as it presses its face up against the wall. Sitting on a prison cell chair whilst peering through a keyhole, its silicone body is marked up, annotated with cosmetic corrections as though prepped for plastic surgery. This uncanny individual is what Lehner refers to an \u201cImage Basterd\u201d: a product of image indoctrination; a member of a different kind of community to the one we were promised, in which radicalised young men coalesce in celebration of misogyny and violence. Self-image is submitted to communal critique in forums where consensus is driven by a stream of idealised masculine icons.<\/p>\n

Lehner\u2019s series of paintings are made through a unique process developed by the artist: compositions are created using thousands of images aggregated from both Lehner\u2019s private and collective archives to construct interactive 3D digital spaces populated by avatars. Within these environments, the artist assumes a puppeteer role, limitlessly manipulating his characters and props before translating them into films, animatronic sculptures or paintings. The paintings materialise Lehner\u2019s scenes through a collaboration with an adapted robotic router, carving out a topographic surface disrupted by painterly gestures where the artist\u2019s hand and the machine\u2019s meet. Emblematic of the technological era in which they are made, the sophisticated layering of Lehner\u2019s paintings complicate our ability to distinguish depth and authorship, real from simulation, truth from falsehood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Simon Lehner, Peasant Painting I, 2025, acrylic on unique canvas, lens-based CNC painting, 40 x 50 cm. Copyright the artist, courtesy Edel Assanti.<\/p>\n

Simon Lehner: Of Peasants & Basterds<\/strong>, 6th June \u2013 8th August 2025 Edel Assanti<\/a><\/p>\n

Opening reception | Thursday 5th June, 6PM \u2013 8PM<\/p>\n

About the artist\"\"<\/a>Simon Lehner Photo \u00a9 Maximilian Pramatarov<\/p>\n

Simon Lehner (b. 1996, Wels, Austria) received his Mag.Art in Photography and Time-based Media at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. Recent solo exhibitions include Of Peasants & Basterds, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2025); Clean Thoughts. Clean Images, Foto Arsenal Wien, Vienna, Austria (2025); My Mountain Has No Summit, KOW, Berlin, Germany (2024); I love you like an image, Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany (2023); I\u2019m a liar, but a good one, KOENIG2 by_robbygreif, Vienna, Austria (2021); To cut a blind spot, Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria (2021); Men don\u2019t play \/ Men do play, Westlicht Museum, Vienna, Austria (2020); The mind is a voice, Bildraum 01, Vienna, Austria (2020); How far is a lightyear?, Art Gen\u00e8ve, Ruinart Prize exhibition, Geneva, Switzerland (2019).<\/p>\n

Recent institutional group exhibitions include On the New, Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria (2024); yours truly, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (2023); Zeit, Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland (2023); Expect the Unexpected, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2023); Photolux Festival, Lucca, Italy (2022); Pattern Recognition, Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany (2022); Ars Electronica Festival, Salzamt, Vienna, Austria (2021); How far is a lightyear?, Rencontres d\u2019Arles, Arles, France (2019). Lehner\u2019s work is in the permanent collections of Vontobel Bank AG \u2013 Urs Stahel, Wiener St\u00e4dtische Insurance, and Ober\u00f6sterreichische Landesmuseum. In 2025, a monograph of his work will be published by Spector Books (Leipzig, Germany) to accompany his solo exhibition at Foto Arsenal Wien<\/p>\n

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