FRTZNABSTRCTN #498, pigment ink on paper/print (unique), 120cm × 90cm, 2020

FRTZNABSTRCTN

The abstracted “Fratzen” (engl. “grimaces”), which are built up by calligraphic lines in several levels and layers, reflect the ever faster and more abstract appearing world. Communication is becoming ever faster, the media and channels ever more sophisticated – more intuitive for the user – and yet the technology in the background is a black hole for many.

It’s all about identity and originality. The grimace drawings, the portraits in colorful, calligraphic lines seem to dissolve into abstraction.

This series of works began in 2019 with mainly digitally drawn works, which were then printed and signed once on high-quality paper. Each grimace abstraction is given a consecutive number and is therefore unique.

Works/Portfolio – FRTZNABSTRCTN – Abstracted Identity (PDF-Download – 7MB)

Since then, he has created works in this series using a variety of techniques – from watercolor on paper, oil and acrylic paint on canvas, as well as mixed media, which incorporate analog and digital work processes, to video works and objects.

Since 2021, the artist has also been digitally releasing FRTZNABSTRCTN works (as still and as animation, such as FRTZNABSTRCTN #571) as NFT (Non-Fungible Token). These sometimes extremely slowed-down animations, which constantly change the image over several minutes and thus allow the viewer to look at a new state at every moment, are also an antithesis to today’s enormously fast-paced communication.

Looking at the artist’s series of works, it seems as if the viewer can dive even deeper, one level further, into the “teeming” and float in the middle of the web of lines – almost meditative. The works in the FRTZNABSTRCTN series are thus a macro shot, a look under the microscope, whereby everything appears abstract despite the magnification.