NextLevel is proud to present the first European and Paris solo exhibition by the Winnipeg based artist Karel Funk, known for his mesmerizing portrait paintings of lone figures.

The subtle evolution of Funk’s practice is explored, beginning with the artist’s meditative portraits of hooded figures, responses to conflicting senses of intimacy and anonymity he experienced on New York subways. In his most recent work, the human form is abandoned and replaced by images of bundled, crumpled, and knotted outerwear. The figures that populate most of Funk’s paintings exude a silent contemplation that places them in dialogue with the post-humanist figurative painting tradition: from the Italian and Northern Renaissance to Photorealism. Funk recently opened his first museum retrospective at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Karel Funk (b. 1971) received an MFA from Columbia University in New York in 2003. Funk has had solo museum shows at Rochester Art Center (Rochester, MN) in 2009 and Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal in 2007. He has participated in several group shows in North America and abroad. Funk’s work is held in major museum collections, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as many private collections. Karel Funk lives and works in Winnipeg.