Marco Wachsmuth
Marco has completed training as a "Stuckateur" (plasterer) in addition to various degree programs, earning qualifications as a 3D artist, art director and photo designer, which shape the foundation of his creative work. Additionally, since the early 1990s, he has maintained a continuous interest in creative expression through his work as a graffiti sprayer and club designer. For many years, he has worked as a 3D designer and facade painter. Currently, Marco is employed as a color designer at a large paint manufacturer. The artist is being part of the Foyou Art Collective (@foyouart) based in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg.
Day after day, we drown in a flood of impressions, images, and information. An overwhelming, unmanageable abundance of analog and digital stimuli competes for ever-shorter attention spans. The pressure to process it all is so immense that we seem to surrender to it. Yet, in our subconscious and semi-conscious mind, an ongoing struggle takes place—a continuous engagement with this very abundance. My painting is an attempt to give form and expression to this complex process, to make it visible and tangible in a different context. It artistically distorts, reinterprets, and reintroduces it to the level of consciousness. The result is a painterly distillation, a kaleidoscope of the daily influx that surrounds me. The driving force behind my artistic process is the urge to explore myself and my experience of the world through the medium of painting. What matters is not the finished image but the internal dialogue that unfolds during its creation. Through the interplay of form and color, associations emerge—serving as inquiries into the self and the world. The outcome remains open for a long time. The search through experimentation, on an undefined journey, leads to places that a premeditated composition could never reach. The motifs in my work are diverse and enigmatic. Landscapes, architectures, and beings emerge and dissolve. Humans, animals, and forms interact—sometimes in struggle, sometimes in harmony, with and against each other. Some visual elements appear as if cut out and collaged. Much of our world is torn from different contexts and recombined into new connections—a principle I simulate in my painting style. Many of my works initially suggest an idyllic scene. But something feels off. Upon closer inspection, the colors, shapes, and structures seem toxic, aggressive, and ominous. Humans adapt to their surroundings and "feel" integrated. And yet, they are in constant conflict with their environment. In their attempt to dominate nature, they are on the verge of destroying it. Here, my painting raises universal questions that concern us all. Beyond any specific intention, my works invite free interpretation. They offer a space for self-exploration, encouraging viewers to embark on their own journey into the realm of associations.
