Matthias Stuchtey – Lost and Found
Skulpturen und Papierarbeiten/Sculptures and works on paper
11. Mai – 22. Juni 2019/May 11 – June 22, 2019
Vernissage: Freitag, 10. Mai 2019, 19-21 Uhr/Opening: Friday, May 10, 2019, 7-9 pm

Red House, 2018, verschiedene Holzwerkstoffe, Aluminium, 2-teilig/mixed wood-based materials,
aluminium, two-part: 49 x 117 x 14 cm + 42,5 x 72,2 x 14,2 cm

With “Lost and Found” we present sculptures and objects and also, for the first time, large-format collages by the sculptor Matthias Stuchtey. He is best known for his architectural, multi-faceted sculptures and objects, which are based on the aesthetics of classical modernism. However, this is only one reading of his intricate formations. For as comprehensible as the works seem at first sight, they defy a quick interpretation. Wherever openings are made, tempting the observer to look in, the works at first reveal little of their actual structure. However, they always offer a back door (sometimes in a figurative, sometimes direct sense), through which the process of perception and interpretation can be resumed and changed.

The word pair “lost and found” generally indicates a lost-property office. It collects what some people have lost and others have found – mostly objects. But you can lose, search and find much more: work, loved ones, home, love. The following are added to the great basic philosophical questions: What have I lost? What am I looking for? What might I find? This dimension is inherent to the work of Matthias Stuchtey: He works not only with different wood materials such as industrially manufactured MDF and chipboard, but also with brand new furniture from IKEA and furniture which can best be described as memorabilia and has, literally, signs of wear and life.

Each individual work is the result of a concentrated thought process that has its origin in immediate existence. The body size of the artist is, for example, in relation to the scale of the two-part object Red House, which is much more than a model of “International Style” architecture (also known as “Neues Bauen”) that poses virulent social issues of urban life. The material is a discarded desk of his daughter, which the artist places in a direct physical relationship with himself. Stuchtey has turned things inside out, showing internal structures, breaking up surfaces and hermetically closing off others. Past and present materialize in an object that is flawed, as in life, and which has a remarkable sensuality and physicality in its concentration on the essential.

Born 1961 in Münster, North Rhine Westphalia; 1982-89 he studied at Kunstakademie Münster; 1988 Meisterschüler with Reiner Ruthenbeck; exhibitions et al.: 2018 „Späte Einsicht“, Kunstverein Nürtingen e. V.; 2017 „ON A CLEAR DAY? – Arbeiten im Raum“ mit Elma Riza, Christiane Rasch, Kunsthaus Essen; „Sero“, Saarländisches Künstlerhaus Saarbrücken e.V.; 2016 „Stabile Lage“, exhibition place of IG Metall Berlin in cooperation with C&K GALERIE, Berlin; 2015 „Spurwechsel“, C&K GALERIE, Berlin.