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Overview
Using rich egg tempera mixed with oil paint, Matthias Brandes creates dense, surreal worlds with architecture jumbled and askew, Italian cypresses like obelisks and ocean liners that seem at the same time massive and miniature. The subjects are full of dichotomies, with the paintings seeming to toe the line between portraiture, landscape, and still life. -
Works
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Video
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Biography
"I'm interested in the contradictions: my houses seem to be made of a hard material, stony, heavy. Instead they can also levitate, fly or go like birds in the nest. The painting is a parallel world that leaves freedom to thoughts and imagination. What today is stopped, yesterday perhaps was moving or flying, or will do so tomorrow. Every state of affairs is temporary and precarious."
— Matthias Brandes
Using rich egg tempera mixed with oil paint, Matthias Brandes creates dense, surreal worlds with architecture jumbled and askew, Italian cypresses like obelisks and ocean liners that seem at the same time massive and miniature. The subjects are full of dichotomies, with the paintings seeming to toe the line between portraiture, landscape, and still life.
Brandes was born in Bochum, Germany. He studied at the Academy and The University of Hamburg, specializing in art history and art-pedagogy. Since the late '60s he has devoted himself entirely to painting, living and working in Meolo near Venice/Italy. His work has been exhibited in Brussels, London, New York, Singapore, Hongkong, Busan, Seoul and throughout Europe, at Museo MAGI'900 Pieve di Cento/Bologna, Bell Art Center Bejing and Kunstforum Wien.
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Exhibitions
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Santiago Perez + Matthias Brandes + Vincenzo Calli + Jorge Leyva
Dwellings of the Mind 15 - 30 Jul 2022Dwellings of the Mind is a group exhibition of new work by four artists who create richly imagined worlds. The show includes three painters and one sculptor, each approaching figuration...Read more -
Figurations Group Exhibition 2019
Michael Bergt, Erin Cone, Matthias Brandes & John Tarahteeff 9 - 25 Aug 2019Join Nüart Gallery for an exhibition of work by four painters, each with a contemporary take on the ancient practice of figurative representation. Working in oil, acrylic, egg tempera, and...Read more -
Figurations 2018
Group Exhibition 27 Jul - 12 Aug 2018O pening reception on Friday, July 27th from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. Representing the figure through paint, drawing, and ceramic may be as intrinsic and ancient to human beings as...Read more
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