Hola! These are Mr. and Mrs. Marnali
Two Berliners on Mallorca: The artist couple are among the new stars of the current pop art scene. The Marnali's celebrate art as a luxury that is fun. From Lady Gaga to Karl Lagerfeld, from the "Birkin Bag" to the $100 bill - they retell the stories of pop and consumption in a refreshing and colorful way. They use a variety of processes, from digital and screen printing to the fascinating multi-perspective lenticular technique.
Pop Art is art that grabs. It touches directly. It's colorful, loud, and fun, it celebrates the moment, and more and more people are simply having a lot of fun. This also applies to the artist couple Mr. and Mrs. Marnali. Since 2017, the two Berliners living in Mallorca have been staging the icons of pop culture in luxuriously appointed and not least humorously gripping pop art paintings and sculptures. In doing so, they tell the glorious stories of the protagonists of pop in their own refreshing, colorful and new way.
It's about Madonna and Lady Gaga, Brigitte Bardot, Karl Lagerfeld and even Choupette, the legendary fashion designer's famous cat. But these are not mere illustrations that are as colorful as possible, but multi-layered concepts on the basis of which ever new stories are told - with the help of the motifs themselves, but also with the shapes and the materials and techniques used. And that is precisely the secret of their success: Marnali's tell stories. They combine content and form, art and technique into a new whole that is independent and definitely more than the sum of its parts. This is where Pop Art becomes MarnaliArt.
MarnaliArt - art you can touch
A genuine Marnali work can always be recognized directly by the high quality of its craftsmanship as well as by its very own depth and extraordinary feel. This is especially true for the works designed as panel paintings. Due to the generous use of materials, they really do have a haptic effect - accordingly: touching is expressly desired here! This is the only way to really feel and experience her paintings. And what you experience there is tremendously diverse.
The Marnali's focus on mixed media. This means, among other things, digital printing, but also screen printing processes, and if the work requires it, both mixed. In addition to the various conventional colorants, crystals, gold and even diamond dust are sometimes used. Aluminum plates, Plexiglas or mirrors are usually used as supports. Sometimes the duo also works with heat to deform the material in this way, giving it an additional three-dimensionality. The result: Marylin Monroe in a surreal rush of color, a last supper with supermodels as a crazy party in the Escape Room, or a gigantic 100-dollar bill measuring 1.80 x 0.73 meters, on which Donald and Daisy Duck simply say hello to a cheekily painted Benjamin Franklin.
Point of View technique and the secret of the "Birkin Bag
The Marnali's latest passion is the point of view technique, through which they can in principle accommodate several views in one image. Depending on how you position yourself as a viewer, you can see completely different levels. For example, the outside and inside of an object, or an amazing before-and-after effect, can be shown simultaneously on a single image carrier. In terms of art history, Marnali's thus move in the tradition of the anamorphoses of the late Middle Ages or the often religious harp or lamella paintings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But here, too, they catapult time-honored techniques into the here and now of the 21st century with precision craftsmanship and, above all, a great deal of humor.
The Marnali's used this photo printing process based on the use of tiny optical lenses for their "Birkin Bag" image, among others. Here they show the outside view of the titular classic handbag from Hermès - or, depending on the perspective, what's inside: lipstick, powder compact, sunglasses, vibrator and much more. By the way, the artist couple solves the age-old question of the contents of a ladies' handbag. The two thus create a work of art that moves in more ways than one.
At the turn of the year 2021/22, they will donate their innovative and witty painting to the Tribute to Bambi Foundation. It will be auctioned off for a good cause via United Charity, Europe's largest charity auction portal.
Mr. and Mrs. Marnali - facts and backgrounds
Hardly any movement has had such a comprehensive and lasting influence on 20th century culture as pop. Film, music, visual art - the everyday reality of man, shaped by mass media, advertising and consumption, found its way into the most diverse art forms after the Second World War at the latest. In the process, the works themselves also acquired pop character. And their creators became stars: artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann. They invented pop as an art form. Today, Mr. and Mrs. Marnali are following in their footsteps. In the spirit of the great Pop pioneers of the past, they translate Pop Art into the world of the 21st century and create their very own MarnaliArt.
The artist couple themselves are from Berlin and live with their three children since 2018 in Santa Ponsa in the southwest of Mallorca. Their artist name "Marnali" is an acronym that combines the first names of the two artists Marko and Natalie Bernsteiner. Marko Bernsteiner was born in Halle an der Saale, grew up in Eberswalde and later worked as a photographer in Berlin, where he soon photographed numerous stars and starlets. In the process, he met his future wife, who comes from the well-known Berlin photographer dynasty Urbschat. A trained graphic designer, she also worked as a stylist and ran her own make-up school.
In 2017, Marko and Natalie brought their talents together and created their first images together based on his photos while still in Berlin. A year later, the move to Mallorca took place. After initial setbacks, the first successes finally came soon. Since 2019, the couple has been running the "Marnali Pop Art Store" in the old town of Palma, where their works are presented and in this way appeal to a steadily growing number of buyers and fans.