Michael Dohr

Lives and works in London, UK / Wolfsberg, AT

Artist statement

Michael Dohr is an Austrian painter and sculptor working between Austria and the UK. His practice explores the ways in which material reality is reinterpreted in times when the physicality of things is constantly being undermined by a new digital reality. By combining a material driven approach with something less tangible like symbolic shapes and code-like signs the artist illustrates the relationship between the physicality of objects and something that goes beyond physical representation. Dohr often uses construction materials such as plaster, wood, expanding foam or silicone in his sculptural work and also uses these materials as references for his paintings and drawings. Simultaneously the artist looks at body tissues, animals, plants or geological structures merging these references into something that lies between the body, the synthetic and the landscape depicting a process of transformation and change rather than a static system. Working with everyday materials such as cardboard and enriching it with mysterious and unknowable signs lays emphasis on the profane but beautiful materiality of everyday life while pointing towards a cryptic new world that becomes increasingly difficult to decipher. Negative space plays an essential role in the work, acting as both a remnant of lost matter and an active force. The sculptures extend this idea through the use of empty silicone molds - impressions of bodies and shapes that are absent and yet present.

Artwork