Visual Essay: Matti Schulz

Welcome to the Absurd of Matti Schulz

Berlin-based artist Matti Schulz throws the doors open to his art with a cheeky irreverence, inviting us to appreciate his absurdist viewpoints. A point of view he expands upon as founder and curator of the Frieren Room in Berlin.

Attending the HfBK Dresden and the University of Barcelona, earning his diploma and master’s, Schulz was afforded the time and facilities to experiment with mediums. His signature humorous depictions of people, animals, and everyday objects have been rendered across materials–from vibrant works on paper using paint, marker, and pencil, to the more tangible ceramic and bronze sculpture.

Most strikingly a marriage of materials reserved for refined works, Schulz’s humor is never more apparent than in the bronze sculpture Puking Cat. A title describing exactly what it is. The idea of a moment so mundane, and gross, represented for centuries in a traditional sculptural material is funniest when imagining a far distant future in which it is unearthed from the ground, like historically significant bronzes before it.

His absurdist takes on contemporary issues from personal experience or cultural observation, are a playfully ironic look at the present. Big Artist reads as the shoes we all strive to fill, while simultaneously feeling under the foot of arts institutions. The visual humor of Limo feels like one of opportunity, sometimes the puns just come, and you never know when they will strike.

There’s a real cheekiness to an artist who has trained and been extensively educated indulging in the kind of work that would have some dismissing his style as caricature. My hope is that we are past the days of my kid could draw that commentary, because to dismiss Schulz’s work is to miss the depth of wit–the joke of the trained artist being silly, as well as the real technical restraint necessary for someone with the skill to cast Puking Cat, to pare back elements of an image.

The trick of work that appears simple, minimalist, careless or cartoonish, like the drawings of Liana Finck or David Shrigley,  is that it becomes all the more challenging to execute. The fewer the elements of an image, the weightier the singular line. Expressive importance hinging on the curve of a simple eyebrow or the exaggerated lean of an animal’s head. With a precision of expression, Schulz’s seemingly childish strokes are strong enough to hold that weight.

Explore more of Matti Schulz’s work on his online portfolio on Format: https://www.mattischulz.com/