CSR.ART presents UNFINISHED PEACE, the first solo exhibition by artist Lars Stenchly, from 12 September 2025 on the occasion of Berlin Art Week. On display are paintings in which the artist processes symbols of war and peace in haunting pictorial constellations: the white dove as an unmasked fighting machine, wearing a gas mask or laden with symbolic flowers, animatronic lambs on a fragile chessboard resembling a world under a bleak sky. Stenchly’s latest works will also be presented: floral still lifes in oil on canvas, rooted in the tradition of the Old Masters and at the same time unfolding politically charged symbolism. Characteristic of Stenchly’s scenes are his calligraphic additions, comments and insertions, which resemble X-ray images, annotated diagrams or digital interfaces.
Image above: Lars Stenchly, Unfinished Peace, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 105 × 140 cm.
Lars Stenchly’s painting combines classical pictorial traditions with contemporary strategies of superimposition and commentary. Oil and acrylic on canvas form the basis of his compositions, which initially draw on familiar iconographic motifs in their visual language. However, the accompanying inscriptions – texts, symbols, diagrams, explanatory fragments – prompt a second glance, reminding viewers of computer interfaces or augmented reality views. It is a way of seeing that analyses, defines and explains – yet still denies true understanding. The mechanisms of this rationalised order are revealed, but the underlying conflict, the theme, remains inexplicable. The message, however, becomes accessible on an emotional level.
It is precisely in this tension that the true power of Stenchly’s painting unfolds. Flowers become representatives of countries, and ultimately of people, who are embroiled in conflict: the sunflower stands for Ukraine, the chamomile for Russia, the anemone for Israel, and the Faqqu’a iris for Palestine. As symbols, they are charged with history, patriotism, suffering and vulnerability. However, as they are by nature, they raise the simple question: why should they wage war against each other? The same applies to the dove of peace, which asks unambiguously: peace – through war? Stenchly’s works reveal that explanation and systematisation reach their limits when it comes to suffering, violence, irreconcilability and the incomprehensibility of war.
The title UNFINISHED PEACE refers to this fragility of peace. Peace does not appear here as a completed state, but as a provisional promise. Always threatened, always incomplete. At the same time, the title also refers onomatopoeically to the work itself: ‘Unfinished Piece’ – the beginning of an artistic career that is still young and only just developing its own language. Stenchly, a self-taught artist and former national volleyball player, has developed a distinctive style and his own visual language in just a few years. With his large digital reach – over 443,000 followers on Instagram – his work has long found an international audience. But what is crucial is his ability to use the tools of classical painting to find a language that resonates with our present: at the intersection of beauty and brutality, ornament and mechanics, symbol and reality.
The exhibition presents Stenchly’s works in a concentrated hanging. Without expansive staging, the viewer’s gaze remains focused entirely on the paintings. This creates a resonance chamber in which the multi-layered symbolism of the images comes into its own and leaves time to turn one’s attention to the creative details.
UNFINISHED PEACE is thus more than an exhibition: it is an invitation to understand unfinished peace not only as an artistic motif, but as an open task that concerns us all.
Lars Stenchly (born 2003, Cologne) lives and works in Berlin. He began painting as a self-taught artist in 2022. His motifs quickly gained him a large following on Instagram. In 2024, one of his works (Waffen für Rafah, 2024) was presented for the first time in a group exhibition at the CSR.ART Contemporary Show Room in Berlin. On the evening of the vernissage, the work was acquired by an art foundation for its collection. With his first solo exhibition at CSR.ART, the young painter’s first comprehensive presentation of his work is now being presented to the public. Stenchly develops an independent visual language in oil and acrylic painting that combines figuration with calligraphic annotations, contemporary symbolism and design elements of augmented reality. His works address conflict, war and peace and question the mechanisms of their representation. They explore motifs, symbolism and new ways of seeing, discovering the literally familiar and known by reinterpreting classic pictorial genres. Stenchly examines how visual systems move between explanation and incomprehension, how beauty and violence intertwine, and how fragile meanings arise when symbols of ornamentation tip over into political reality.
WHEN?
Vernissage:
Friday, 12. September 2025, 6 – 9 pm
from 9 pm After Show Party with 5 DJ Sets
Exhibition dates:
Saturday, 13. September – Thursday, 25. September 2025
Mon – Sat 10 am – 7 pm
WHERE?
CSR.ART Contemporary Show Room
@BIKINI BERLIN im EG links, Eingang Richtung Zoo Palast Kino
Budapester Str. 38-50
10787 Berlin
