Artist Statement


 

My materials are oil paint, canvases, oil and above all paint brushes for applying the colours as well as brushes for mixing the various colours. The technique is based on those of the old Dutch masters like Vermeer. Vermeer is less of an idol for me, rather it’s the aesthetics of his painting style that define the potential of his images.

 

My perception of the surrounding environment (mostly in the city) is characterised by a focus on dissonant (somehow “inadequate”) compositions and their aesthetics, as in street art it’s about the tension between the actual artwork and the environment. The resulting effect only arises from the combined perception of both. The final motif of my images comes into being first via my own perception and the following capture of this perception with a camera.

 

However, I don’t just paint those photographs then, but instead combine different visual elements from various pictures that I took of the same situation. This perception of the environment has slowly expanded to the people in my surroundings: portraying people that I see every day (at work or at home) the way they are, sometimes as dissonant as the city they live in. Especially this divergence sets the people that I see every day and their daily lives apart.

 

The city is somehow broken, but at the same time shining. The people I meet at work have sometimes mysterious, deeper backgrounds; but sat down in front of me with their iPhone to read me the cards like in the “Fortune Teller”. In “What Are You Doing Tonight” there is a stark contrast in the way my daughter sits hunched in front of her laptop with her sweatpants; her fingers smoothly and quickly moving across the keyboard. The aesthetic statement of my artwork results from the combined perception of the divergent visual content.

 

The situations and encounters in daily life mixed with a painting technique similar to Vermeer’s strategy are part of this dissonance. The process of painting smoothly and sensitive stands in direct contrast to the speed and mindlessness of our daily lives. This process belongs to my personal perception of the visual content and the overall reception of the artwork.