Mutan

The work of Thomas Scheibitz functions in the boundary between recognizability and obscurity. He uses familiar imagery but abstracts it, and in this intermediate zone the artist's pictorial world arises. He is often referred to as post-cubist. The breakdown of subject matter into an interconnected system of flattened, distorted shapes and tense, matte surfaces creates a highly distorted spatial illusion. The architectural forms and plastic colours reference art history, as well as contemporary digital compression techniques.

The figurative elements in the paintings are in fact representations of representations; they are taken from an archive of media clippings the artist compiles. From this source his painting becomes a means of exploring a network of cultural signifiers. However, his subjects are transformed beyond recognition, fragmented and elongated into uncanny familiarity. Their alienation from reality reflects the mediated reality of our media-saturated society.

What interests Scheibitz is a kind of public memory, a collective storehouse of images which capture and define the world we live in. From this starting point, the commonplace is conflated with a higher aesthetic ideal. He seems to revel in a kind of glamorous banality. In Mutan, Scheibitz deconstructs a tower block - a ubiquitous symbol of urban life - supplanting realistic representation with an abstract visual language.