We are delighted to present the exhibition Reservations for One by American artist Anthony Goicolea at our gallery in Vienna. On display are large-scale canvas works and fragile paintings on Mylar, all of which celebrate the absurdity, vulnerability, and beauty of human existence.

Anthony Goicolea is one of the most versatile contemporary artists of his generation. After graduating from the Pratt Institute in New York, he became known in the late 1990s for his conceptual photographic works and videos, in which he often played multiple roles himself. For almost two decades, he has concentrated primarily on painting, with occasional forays into sculpture and installation. His works have been exhibited in major museums and art institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Reservations for One takes us on an emotional journey through the spheres of a constant search for meaning. Goicolea shows people in bizarre, melancholy moments in which they seem caught on the border between reality and a dream world. The figures in his pictures appear lost and yet self-confident, fragile and powerful at the same time. They find themselves in moments of deep loneliness, longing, and absurdity, triggered by the fascination of the physical and intimacy.

Goicolea's painting style is characterized by an expressive visual language, which he masterfully combines with surreal elements. He remains true to the figurative—his works are characterized by recognizable, vividly depicted people, often in physical or emotional borderline situations. The images appear like snapshots from a movie that has no clear plot but somehow captures the essence of life: the flow of time, the innocence of youth, the beauty of imperfection, and the hope that something new and better can come.

What particularly distinguishes Goicolea's painting is the subtle humor that runs through the dark, melancholy tones of his works. Amidst the drama and isolation, there are always moments of irony and lightness, inviting the viewer to accept and perhaps even celebrate the oddities of life.

Born in 1971 as the son of Cuban immigrants and raised in the US state of Georgia, Goicolea learned early on about the feeling of not quite belonging in a place, the unspoken, unarticulated discomfort in a situation without really knowing what is wrong. In his art, he therefore always seeks out the border areas and threshold states, the moments on the brink. The uncertain terrain in which temporal and local positioning become difficult and the viewer is no longer sure what they are seeing.

In Goicolea's paintings you can sense this certain misplaced unease of the strange or alienating, not immediately, not superficially, not crudely, but with charming, loving subtlety. The colors are intense, the gazes are fixed even when they drift off, the bodies are all androgynous, youthful, a little sensual, but not intrusive.

The literally dislocated nature of his images sometimes remains discreet and then suddenly becomes apparent in all its drama. Figures drift in murky waters, campfires cast a gloomy light on illuminated beings, and where they make it to shore and out of the enchanted forest, they end up in a hotel that Hitchcock could not have thought up any better—received at the Night Desk, the Bellman carries your suitcases to your room when you arrive late at night and even after midnight you are still served to your bed:O ne AM Room Service June 1974.

Goicolea's titles suggest stories, but there are hardly any spoilers and certainly no narrative or resolution. He merely “teases” in his pictures. Sometimes wicked, sometimes sinister, sometimes sad, but always emotionally charged. These are tense moments, expectant stills, as if Goicolea had pressed the pause button, brought the tape of the video cassette in the recorder to a standstill with a rumbling clatter and was now savoring the flickering, buzzing moment.

You believe Goicolea when he says that he has never been particularly interested in the idea of a “before” and an “after.” His protagonists—for whom the artist often models himself— operate in the tense space between the given image and our personal interpretations. With references to pop culture, mass media, and fictional memories, they appear to have emerged from a pool of images and ideas that seem both familiar and alien. Whether we like it or not, they awaken a desire in the viewer to continue telling their stories in their own minds.