".....My first creative action, according to my parents, was to produce an in promptu mural on the bedroom wall of their home, while they were dining with friends in the kitchen. The material I used was my own excrement, commonly known as "shit". The world around me was not impressed, none the less this seemingly small incident may have become a profound influence on other artists years later.........
At the age of 15, while suffering from Meningitis, I had some feverish visions, or may be the drugs our doctor prescribed for me, were the cause of some minor hallucinations. In any case I did some sketches at the spur of the moment that led to my earliest "face mutations", eventually to be incorporated in my first One - Man - Show. I don' t really know, but looking back I seem to subconciously have taken the decicion to get involved in art, as from that time on I was drawing or painting at any given time. I proceeded in studying the old masters and their way of painting in misch-technique - Max Doerner's book "Malmaterial und seine Verwendung im Bilde" became "my Bible". At the same time I learned to play the piano in school and taught myself the first chords on the guitar, so I could put some of my lyrics to music. After showing my paintings in school exhibitions and participating in some other art shows, I had my first one-man-show in 1974 at the Orpheum/Haus der Jugend in Graz, Austria, then a place where young artists and musicians could show their work.........."
After moving to London,
Marburger studied Fine Art and Printmaking at the Heatherley
School of Fine Art.
He
took part in various exhibitions in England and Austria.
The one man show "Lipsticks
And Other Recent Paintings'' at the renowned gallery Aberbach Fine Art
(London
1978),
puts
him on the international stage. The paintings are executed in a "new"
technique with an airbrush, a tool, that Marburger had been introduced
to by one of
his
friends
while working in graphic design around 1976 / 77.
Other shows
that
deserve
to be
mentioned
are "Lipsticks and Screams" at the Bede Gallery (Jarrow 1979),
and a series of exhibitions at the Cobra Gallery (London): “Victims” -
Cobra Gallery - London (1986), “Marbled Images“ (Marmorierungen)
- Cobra Gallery - London (1988), “Automatic Drawings“ Cobra
Gallery - London (1992), “Black Eros” - Cobra Gallery
- London (1996),
In 1984 he formes the Rock band MISHIMA as an outlet for his lyrics and musical ambitions.
Between 1985 and 1988 he produces murals and painted furniture for the nightclubs "4 Aces" and "Hide Away" in London.
Since circa 1990 we
find sculptures made
from polyester and fiberglass in Marburger's oeuvre; later, smaller objects
made from wood, soapstone and serpentine are introduced.
From 1998 onwards Marburger developes a complete new technique for his
sculptures. Intensive experiments with different varieties of plastic lead
first to "ready-mades",
in which he combines old toys and parts of domestic appliances etc with found
objects to create new forms, on the one hand confronting a throw away society
with their own garbage, and on the other hand showing a way to "get
rid" of
some of our waste in a creative way. Soon the "throw-away-sculptures" make
way to more "commercial" objects, where
hot plastic is formed into small figures, often of an erotic nature and occasionally
resembling
stone
or
marble.
The year 2005 sees the first Bronze sculpture: Condom King. Originally made from wood, polyester and fibre glass, the shiny black bust was to serve as a model for a much larger sculpture , but it was never realized, "because of the objections of some bureaucrats, who misunderstood the whole concept". Eventually the decision was made to cast the "King" in Bronze in an edition of 5 (numbered) + 2 (unnumbered).
In 2006 the "Condom King" is shown in various galleries in England and Austria.
In 2007/2008 a perpetual calendar of some of Marburgers paintings is published in Austria.
In 2009/10 Marburger participates in the "Human Emotion Project 2009" (HEP 2009/10), organized by Alison Williams via the Internet, with 2 short videos entitled "Proud" and "Agonized", which are shown in galleries and museums all over the world.
In July 2010 a fire in his studio destroys a considerable number of mostly new paintings and sculptures among other things. Marburger suffers severe burns on both hands.
Articles, Publications:
Austria: Kleine Zeitung, Tagespost, Neue Zeit, Kronenzeitung, Zyklus, Trend
Art Spectrum
-Industrie und Kunst (book), Merkur - Calendar 2003 (February, Depressive
Image), 80 Kulturzeitung (2006), Perpetual Calendar (2008)
GB: Time Out, Arts Review, Jewish Chronicle, New Scientist, Fiesta,
USA 1980: The painting „Apple 2“ is published in Bradley Smith’s „20th
Century Masters of Erotic Art“ (Crown Publishing)
Record covers and/or
posters for Hallelujah Bangkok, Jah
Warriors, Ivory, Dominic Miller's Iguazu, the Blackstones, Sphinx,
Mishima
Videos: (in collaboration with Chris Smith): Crucial Fiction, Dreamsequence,
Music-Videos for Mishima
Videos for Human Emotion Project 2009/2010: Agonized, Proud
2016: Danse Macabre (or the Anxieties of Abigail Jones), Schizophrenia.