Matthias Mansen – Land und See

„...the new invention of the land and the sea in woodcuts.“ (Eckhart Gillen) The Berlin-based artist Matthias Mansen is one of the most distinguished woodcutters of the present day. The exhibition Matthias Mansen. Land und See, which has been developed in cooperation with the Kunstverein in Mannheim and the Städtische Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, presents for the first time on a larger scale the woodcuts with landscapes and seascapes that he has created over the last ten years, featuring around 30 works. Mansen's woodcut works, which have an immediate effect on the viewer, are characterized by a high degree of abstraction. The origin, however, is the closely observed, visible reality. Strict linearity, depth structure, and overlays in mostly intense colors that can be characterized as painterly give rise to multifaceted landscape images in which individual views merge into a dense picture. The combination of various image fragments naturally suits the technique of the woodcut. Mansen therefore works with numerous printing plates per print; the traces of individual fragments remain visible on the paper in the print. The layering method of working corresponds to the increasing fragmentation of human perception in everyday life: the gaze is constantly restricted and directed to details that miss the perception of the whole. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.