About

• Tobias Spichtig thinks of the ingredients in his work as material, like the stand-up comedian who also describes his repertoire as his “material”.
• Spichtig’s paintings incorporate deadpan internet pictures, heat-pressed onto a canvas, before the remaining space – the background – is filled in.
• His exhibitions are cluttered. Rooms are filled with domestic materials, such as mattresses, fridges, and kitchen tables, denying access to the painted works, which are forced into the background of a seemingly staged set.
• A third dimension to Spichtig’s practice are his “ghost figures” – languid mannequins, dressed in contemporary fashion and covered in hardened epoxy resin.
• The sum of these scenes seems to comment on the leisure economy, notions of coolness in youth culture and the theatricality of passing fashions. These works reveal fragile, short-lived peaks – the moments of before and after, when authenticity fades into empty, ephemeral symbols and codes that land on the trash pile of culture.