Stefan Stichler

Lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Düsseldorf, Germany

Artist statement

One of my exhibitions was titled Beside the Line, a phrase I would now like to place at the beginning of this text, as I use it both as a description of place and as a state of mind. My painting is a search for expression, for a reformulation of what happens to me, of what stands in my way — if only to provoke and challenge. A kind of invitation to search for insight? I try to locate myself within a world that seems to be tearing apart, lying fragmented before me like scattered puzzle pieces. I assemble fragments, sampling photographs and sketches. What emerges are windows into a world I do not know and yet one that is familiar to me. The perspective is a different one. I am searching for a structure, a kind of system within which we act and position ourselves. This appears to be a Sisyphean task, and perhaps that in itself is already an insight. All of the worlds that open up within my paintings live through their connection to the realities of the viewers. To walk beside the line means heightened vigilance. It happens out of love for a world as it could be, but not yet is.

Artwork