Ghenie’s haunting, grotesque drawings and collages expand upon his ideology of estrangement through montage and abstraction The gloomy backgrounds and deformed characters in the works of Adrian Ghenie (born 1977) are inspired by the catastrophes of the 20th century, which the artist describes as an era of "humiliation." In his recent series of collages and charcoal drawings, Ghenie shifts his focus to the crises of the 21st century.