Muntean / Rosenblum is the name by which the artist couple formed by Austrian Markus Muntean and Israeli Adi Rosenblum, both born in 1962, currently living in Vienna, the city where they met when they were students in the late eighties, and where they have been working since 1992. The analytical nature of their work, which forms a system of complex structures, allows different simultaneous readings and points of view, seems entirely adequate for a form of dialogue or teamwork.

Muntean/Rosenblum are well known internationally for a work of a conceptual nature that mixes references of art history to popular culture. And they do it in an attractive way, since they are never didactic, and adding more personal themes or issues. Transferring codes from the past to our days, or debating the massive use of images of different nature, they reflect both; the power of images, and their vulnerability, suggesting that they are supported by ideologies that are not always visible, and even subconscious; that they can be easily manipulated; or that are used, at present, by many people who are not artists to express themselves or communicate, elaborating stories of a generally vain filmic nature and for immediate consumption.

Painting is one of the central aspects of their work, but his practice is more complex, including large installations with sculptural elements, where performances take place and films are projected, in addition to also making drawings, collages with texts or photographs. Their paintings mostly feature groups of young characters in seemingly boring or melancholic situations, ranging from everyday and familiar to mysterious and ambiguous. These situations happen in rooms, public spaces or landscapes. The positions adopted by his characters come from both fashion magazines and the history of European painting, from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, so that his final appearance, when presenting ongoing and unfinished situations, is theatrical, like a frame from a movie.

By Enrique Juncosa