Matthias Weischer

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Matthias Weischer (born in 1973 in Rheine, Germany) is a painter based in Leipzig.

Weischer studied painting from 1995-2001 and received his MA in 2003 from Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst[http:/www.hgb-leipzig.de], Leipzig.

He has shown work in a number of important exhibitions such as “The Experience of Art” at the Venice Biennale [1], “From Leipzig” at the Cleveland Museum of Art[2] and “DAVID, MATTHES und ich” at Kunstverein Nurnburg[3]. He has exhibited internationally at galleries and museums including ARARIO [4] in Chungnam, Korea, Anthony Wilkinson Gallery[5] in London and the Rubell Family Collection[6] in Miami. He is represented by Anthony Wilkinson[7] in London.

Matthias Weischer’s paintings use architecture as a central theme to explore the possibilities of spatial illusion. His elaborate depictions of interiors are pure invention based in a quiet subversion of logic. Through the banality of design, Weischer presents a state of contemporary consciousness where model living is reflected as both desire and anxiety.

Weischer’s rich surfaces contrast geometric fields of hard-edged abstraction with highly rendered decorative details to create an eerie play between flatness and 3D. Starting with a blueprint of an empty room, Weischer builds his imagined locations layer upon layer, each added element further pushing the boundaries of perceived space. Dizzying repetitive motifs and Escher-like visual riddles nimbly allude to a sense of the uncanny. Suburban normality is infiltrated by an almost unnoticeable surrealism; floors become tabletops, flat-pack furniture is impossibly two-dimensional, and shadows are conspicuous either by their absence, or their absurd shapes and angles.

Each canvas exposes the making of its improbable construction. Following underlying grids reminiscent of virtual reality, Weischer rigidly maps out the structure of fantasy. Never populated, his interiors give no hint of narrative; their décor is unplaceable in fashion timeline, and there are no clues to their inhabitants’ personalities. For Weischer, representation becomes a precarious consequence of abstraction. Imagining each location as an installation, Weischer uses painting to realise its image. Veering in style from tidy formalism to expressionistic gesture, he heightens the element of mystery. For Weischer, space is a conceptual enigma; painting becomes the realm of its capricious realisation.