Thilo Heinzmann

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

Thilo Heinzmann’s third solo exhibition with neugerriemschneider unites selected works from a number of his artistic cycles, taking up the conceptual dialog laid out in his new monograph, acting as testament to the rigorously analytic quality of the artist’s painting, and shaping a concentrated survey of his practice. By using materials atypical of the medium - Styrofoam, particle board, aluminum, shards of glass or grains of sand among them - Heinzmann puts to the test the principles of painting, expanding the discipline through new physical and technical theories to expose the dynamic, haptic nature of his work and process.

For Heinzmann, form, scale, texture, color and light serve not as mere elements of an image, but as the very foundations of composition. He enacts this ethos as he joins fragmented sheets of Styrofoam, crystalline fragments of glass and thin shards that cast shadows in vivid colors on their blank surroundings, or as he breaks particle board by hand to expose the material’s inner chaos, pouring, dripping and brushing glistening resin inlaid with chipboard fragments. The artist’s affinity for the interplay between the precision of industrial processes and natural entropy comes to the fore in his considered use of aluminum, perforated and brought into conversation with leather and parchment. In motions at once exacting and open to chance, he manipulates pigments, accented by fragments of colored glass, to dynamic compositions on textured canvas, stoking a dialog between seemingly disparate parts to shape a cohesive whole. In his most recent series, Heinzmann investigates the capacities of black oil paint, applying it in built-up gestures, leveling it or allowing it to traverse the surface with near-kinetic momentum. Embedded grains of sand shimmer atop the work’s surface, while glass fragments split light and dance upon the paint, lending depth that develops along with a viewer’s vantage point. Together, the works attest to an experimental spirit dedicated to medium and composition, ever-changing yet firmly grounded.

Heinzmann’s monograph, published by Scheidegger & Spiess, follows the artist’s development from his years as a student at Frankfurt am Main’s Städelschule through to his latest sand paintings in black. His first comprehensive publication in 10 years, the catalog features a discussion between the artist and curator Mark Godfrey, an essay by art critic Kristian Vistrup Madsen and a poetic musing on the artist’s work by Vanessa Onwuemezi, all accompanied by sets of detailed reproductions.

Thilo Heinzmann (b. 1969) has been the subject of solo exhibitions at international institutions including Too much is not enough!, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz (2019); Per Amor a l’Art Collection. Ornament = Crime?, Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia (2017); Painting Forever!, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2013); Masterpieces of Painting in the Collection of the IVAM: Past, Present and Future, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia (2011); Hotel Marienbad 002: Sammlung Rausch, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2008); Kurator 2007/2008: Das Grosse Nichts, Gebert Stiftung für Kultur, Rapperswil-Jona (2008); Ketzer & Co, Dům umění/The Brno House of Arts, Brno (2006); 36 x 27 x 10, Volkspalast, Berlin (2005); deutschemalereizweitausenddrei, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main (2003); Viva November, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2001); Malerei, INIT Kunsthalle, Berlin (1999); Offencia Europa, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna (1999); and Junge Szene, Secession, Vienna (1998). Heinzmann lives and works in Berlin.

For further information, please contact: mail@neugerriemschneider.com.