"Manuali" by Sebastian Bieniek, 2014.

"Manuali" is a series of paintings by Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK).

It is part of the "Manualisation" field in which the artist is working since 1996. The sujet of this artworks are black hands that mostly come from behind to surrender or embrace a person or a figure.

The impression of the artworks is often described as surrealistic but also as claustrophobic or even creepy.

The first artwork of the series was made in the early year 2014. It was at that time the fourth painting from the "Facination" series in which Bieniek started to work with black hands in the context of a figure. As you can see in the previews "Facination" there is also a hand in the center of the painting, but it's still less dominant than in the "Facination No. 4".

Because this works - as all works of Sebastian Bieniek - have been since years widely spreaded on internet, they inspired many others to redo and variate Bieniek's originals.

In 2015 for example the french designer Jacquemus created an entire "Bieniek inspired collection" that have been shown with a huge success at the Paris Fashion Week in the same year. One year later Caribbean fashion designer Cecilia Devana was also inspired by this works and in 2017 the dazed & confused and 032c magazine fashion photographer Maxime Ballesteros published a book called "les absents" that is shows his work based on Bieniek's original artwork.

"Manuali No. 1", Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2014

"Manuali No. 1" (also “Facination No. 4”) by Sebastian Bieniek 2014. Two overpainted paintings (oil on canvas) from 1970’s. 100,5 cm. x 50 cm.