York–Opera Gallery is pleased to present Hybrid souls, a solo exhibition by Swiss painter Andy Denzler, who will be present for the exhibition opening. This new series of twenty paintings, created in his Zurich studio in 2024 and 2025, explores the intricate complexities of the human condition in the digital age.

Drawing inspiration from his own photography, found imagery, and AI- generated prompts, Denzler creates layered compositions that challenge perceptions of reality. His process begins with heavy impasto oils in a rich, earthy palette dominated by naples yellow, ochres, and burnt umbers–lending a warmth to his works evocative of aged Polaroids or sun-bleached photographs. By scraping and distorting the surface of his canvas with a spatula, Denzler creates textures that shift between smooth and rough; sharp and fragmented. The resulting works possess a cinematic quality reminiscent of paused or fast- forwarded video frames.

In Hybrid souls, Denzler addresses the intricacies of the information age, offering both a reflection and critique of what it means to live within the increasingly blurred boundaries between humanity and technology. He confronts this through his Distorted series, comprising portraits representing individuals in the private sphere and his Collision series, which focuses on the collective within the public sphere. In the private sphere, individuals appear contemplative while they rest and recline on sofas. They are depicted in calm, domestic environments, disconnected from the frenetic pace of the digital world. The earthy color palette creates a warm atmosphere suspended in time. In stark contrast, the Collision paintings embody a frenetic energy inspired by British expressionist painters such as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.

Referencing neo-expressionist techniques, Denzler’s dynamic brushwork invokes a sense of immediacy. Young figures are depicted in ambiguous spaces, between the real and imaginary. They seem to dance, run, scream, or freeze in motion. Despite being clustered together, they appear isolated and disconnected from one another–their eyes closed as though lost in a reverie. As the artist describes it, they are caught “in the act of becoming—part human, part digital echo”.

From breaking apart and coming together to disintegration and reconstruction, the theme of duality is central to this new body of work, making it profoundly resonant with contemporary society. Hybrid souls captures the zeitgeist of this contemporary era–while interrogating the trajectory of our individual and collective futures–in a world that continuously redefines what it means to be human.

Andy Denzler (b. 1965; Zurich,Switzerland) currently lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. He obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London in 2006.

Denzler has created a signature style encompassing bands of pigment that alternate between static, thick marks and blurred, flowing sweeps. The human figure remains at the core of his explorations, courting the viewer’s memories, and leaving him with a vague gnawing that he has missed something lying just beneath the surface. Perception and distortion are prominent and powerful traits of Denzler’s studio practice.

His works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Europe, the United States and Asia in private and public institutions including the Gwangju Museum of Art, the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, the Ludwig Galerie Schloss in Oberhausen, the Kunsthalle in Rostock, in Germany and he recently had a major retrospective at the Kunstforum in Vienna. In 2015, Denzler participated in the 6th Beijing international Biennale and in 2016, at the 6th Marrakech Biennale. His art is featured in major collections including The Roberts Institute of Art, UK, Kistefos Museum, Norway, Kunstwerk Sammlung Klein, Germany, Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany, the MOMA Moscow, as well as the Museum Würth in Schwäbisch Hall in Germany, the Burger Collection in Hong Kong and the White Cube Collection in London.

With carefully fragmented distortions and brushstrokes that mimic passing thoughts and haunting spectral forces, Denzler explores the intrinsically tied nature of disintegration and progress in the modern world with an existentialist slant. The collage-like effect of Denzler’s compositions underscores the literal and conceptual engagement with reconstruction and assemblage that is central to paradigm shifts within postmodernism and the information age.