PUBLISHED IN AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR MAGAZINE (ISSUE 205):
“Andreas Claussen’s series FLOOD sends a lonely astronaut into the vastness of a flooded Earth. Armed with nothing more than an inflatable flamingo, he floats through the water and discovers the remnants of human culture.
Claußen captures the zeitgeist with his oil paintings. In the midst of ongoing uncertainty about the actual extent of the global environmental crisis, between naysayers, utopians and conspiracy theorists, between broken supply chains and soaring energy prices, Claußen’s paintings are a welcome change. With a lot of humor and irony, they spread a hopeful mood on this difficult situation and stimulate meaningful conversations about our future challenges.
The starting point for this could be, for example, the striking titles: BE PREPARED, PANIC BUY, WE STAY TOGETHER and TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. They read like headlines from a post-apocalyptic survival guide and this is exactly what the brave protagonist from Claussen’s paintings needs. And maybe we do, too.
“I hope my paintings bring a smile to people in these difficult times and a feeling of “we can make that!” or “we will survive this!” at least,” says Claussen.
That is why Claussen portrays his humorous image ideas using bold colors and strong textures. With generous and quick brushstrokes he spreads the oil paint on the canvas. He alternates fluently between running watery applications to pasty layers of paint and between abstract backgrounds and finely worked out details resulting in works that are a visual wave, stunning and immersive.”