Homunculi by Stefan Zsaitsis

We have written about the very gifted Austrian artist and illustrator Stefan Zsaitsis, when we discovered his fascinating work earlier, in October of this year. Zsaitsis has an extraordinary signature running through all his work. He creates highly fascinating dark pencil drawings of childlike figures in which he oftenly seems to hybridize particular thoughts and emotions directly on or with the body part which is involved, mostly the head. One can always observe that sense of astonishment combined with a touch of fear, with the results surrealistic and sometimes even slightly repulsive raw images, which evoke a sense of unsettlement. Last week the very talented artist presented his second publication with work stretching all the way back to 2012 until this year. The artist published the beautiful book himself, like the predecessor ‘Headsongs’, with his second publication given the name ‘Homunculi’. The hardcover specimen consists of 180 pages with 82 images, basically forming an elaborate catalogue of almost all drawings Zsaitsis created in the past three years. 

Renown Austrian writer Barbara Frischmuth in the foreword on the extraordinary work of Stefan:

With fine stroke Zsaitsits captures the ethereal images in the wondrously de-familiarised heads, which, born from association, seek form and composition, aspire not to solve the riddle that is humanity but to dissolve it in various streams of consciousness.

Next to the regular edition in the form of the hardcover book, Zsaitsis also created an incredible limited edition box set of ‘Homunculi’. The collectors item is a black handmade linen  box, which next to the signed and numbered catalogue with a small original drawing on the first page, also features a hand-signed and numbered giclée print on 290g paper, framed with a passepartout.

To order the regular edition see here, for the limited edition here.

For more information on Stefan Zsaitsis see here.