Matthias Ebinger

Matthias Ebinger (born 1957 in Heidelberg/Germany) now lives and works in Karlsruhe.

His artistic exploration began early on through intensive contacts with art, culture and literature, characterized by personal exchange with artists.

He works with a greatly reduced visual language, essentially with a limited color palette, a

two-dimensional tonal structure and simplified contours, and yet the emotional effect remains surprisingly intense. This economy is one of the real strengths of the works. The paintings do not describe excessively, they distill.

The comparison with poster aesthetics and political graphics is recognizable, especially in the sharp color separation and the iconic frontal compositions. Nevertheless, the works avoid being purely graphic, as they retain a psychological instability. The faces are not clear symbols. They seem fragmented, dissolving, almost overwhelmed by emotions.

Sometimes the faces seem to be memories, traumas or dreams rather than photographs.

This ambiguity gives the works depth.

The reduced colour palette is also extremely intelligently chosen. The dominant reds create a sense of urgency, openness and physical intensity, while the pale creams and cool blues create distance and fragility.

The depiction of the body is particularly interesting. The figures seem vulnerable and monumental at the same time. They are reduced to the essentials, but never anonymous.

The raised arms, tilted heads and open mouths are just as reminiscent of devotional or ecstasy pictures as they are of contemporary portrait painting. A touch of ritualized emotion pervades the works and ties in surprisingly well with German Expressionism, but still seems contemporary due to the graphic condensation. The reduction of form thus becomes a way to get closer to the feeling, not to move away from it.

Discover more of the artist's work: https://www.matthias-ebinger.de/

@All images courtsey of Matthias Ebinger