DOMINIK VON STRENG
Lord Dominik von Streng von Arenenberg is a British concept, minimal, pop artist associated with the 1980s New York Neo-Geo/New Wave art movement ("Neogeo"). Born in 1962, he grew up in Herrliberg, Switzerland, where he went to primary school. Later he stayed at boardingschools at Stella Matutina in Austria and in Disentis in Switzerland, finished highschool in 1981 at Freies Gymnasium Zurich. From young age he visited many museums around the world. In 1980 he met Andy Warhol at Gallery Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich. From 1978 to 1981 he worked at Sotheby's Zurich during school holidays, cleaning Fabergé eggs and hanging Monets, Renoirs and van Goghs. 1981 to 1982 he joined the Swiss Army. 1982 to 1985 he studied and worked at Sotheby's in Zurich and London. 1985 to 1986 he worked at the Barbara Gladstone/Rudolf Zwirner Gallery in New York, NY at 99 Greene Street. In New York he met gallerists Ileana Sonnabend, Larry Gagosian, Tony Shafrazy, Sidney Janis, E.V. Thaw, Serge Sabarsky, Wildenstein and others. He met in New York artists especially from Gallery Klein, Nature Morte and International With Monument: Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, George Condo, Not Vital, Peter Nagy, John Dogg, Olivier Mosset, Anish Kapoor and many more. In 1985 he introduced the works of Jeff Koons and Peter Halley to the late Swiss Artdealer Thomas Ammann shifting the fine arts art market from Old Masters and Impressionists to Post War and Contemporary Art. In 1986 Dominik bought "Find a Quiet Table", 1986, by Jeff Koons at International With Monument, selling it later at Christie's to support his own work. 1987 he worked at Gallery Lelong in Zurich and Gallery Crone at Art Basel and studied at the University of Zurich art history.
1987 Dominik started to work with fluid and solid Plexiglas (PMMA) using it in an unusual way. He was a regular visitor at Hallen für Neue Kunst in Schaffhausen, where he was influenced mainly by artists such as Ryman, Nauman and Flavin; other influences are Koons and Halley, Fragonard and Boucher, Rodchenko and Yves Klein, himself a contemporary of Damien Hirst. In 1990 his studio in Brüttisellen exploded.
