Christof Mascher

CHRISTOF MASCHER (Hannover, 1979).
"The Prestige", 2007.
Oil on panel.
Presents a label on the back of the gallery Michael Janssen (Berlin).
Measurements: 210 x 260 cm.
Born in Hannover in 1979 Christof Mascher grew up in a newly unified Germany, in which was born an urban culture marked by graffiti and hip-hop, and began art school after postmodernism. In 2004 he began his academic training at the University of the Arts in Brunswick, where he studied under the guidance of Professor Walter Dahn among others. The latter was a great artistic influence on Mascher. During his years of career he developed a very personal visual language, based on figurative painting, which has been defined by the author himself as an extension of his mental state. That is why his artwork shows a dreamy, figurative aesthetic realized in a variety of materials. The close observer finds a combination of pop culture, architectural and historical references in Mascher's work. His intuitive painting process functions as a visual diary, creating narrative while working. A specific interest in abandoned and lost places sometimes gives his work an uncanny feel. His subjects vary widely, showing utopian landscapes or deserted houses, with the occasional appearance of dinosaurs.

Christof Mascher's dream paintings evoke fantastical narratives that combine expressionistic markings with illustrative details, contemporary iconography and foreboding architectural spaces. Influenced by "primitive" and "naive" art, the fantastic hybrids of Paul Klee and Hieronymus Bosch, and Emil Nolde's expressive use of color, Mascher paints scenes that are extravagant, ambiguous spaces, with fantastic flora and fauna, incomprehensible shadows and ethereal structures, as is the case in this 2007 work "the prestige".