Markus Muntean and Adi Rosenblum’s work is infused with the philosophical paradox of a “lost” generation. Working in the mediums of painting, photography, video, performance, and installation, Muntean and Rosenblum critically search for meaning and significance in a contemporary youth culture defined by MTV, style magazines, and Brett Easton Ellis novels. Their compositions are borrowed from Old Master paintings, while the figures are based on collaged fashion spreads. Taking the format of photo-romance imagery, each painting is accompanied by tabloid-style, nihilist captions. Their exquisite and vulnerable figures appear distorted and grotesque, while their identities are reduced to brand names. Muntean and Rosenblum exhibit a heartfelt engagement with adolescent politics, and the conflict of longing to both emulate and ridicule the “beautiful ones,” while foreground a concern with body image, social exclusion, youth role models, and the values of “fast-forward” culture. They redraft the timeless sentiments of youth as a contemporary syndrome, an expanded metaphor for cultural anxiety and identity crisis, while hinting at the darker social and political issues underlying the surface of their pastoral images.

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