Marten Kirbach (born 1979) studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 2000 to 2006 under Prof. Elke Hopfe and Prof. Ralf Kerbach. From 2006 to 2008, he was a master student of Prof. Ralf Kerbach. It was there that he developed an abstract visual language of impressive consistency, in which the objectivity of line and plane takes precedence over painterly gesture.

Through geometries and colour spectra precisely calibrated in each individual painting, the picture format becomes a testing ground, a kind of laboratory, in which a decisively articulated form emerges, depending on chance or inspiration and in accordance with seemingly strict rules. Through a series of steps involving the division of planes, layering and separation, colour modulation, the gentle linear dispersion of tones, overlays and semi-transparent coverings, a concrete pictorial narrative takes shape, bathed in soft neon light.

At times, these small-format paintings resemble precise and finely cut gemstones, each a masterpiece perfectly balanced in itself. On the one hand, the works are characterised by their love of variation and mutability; on the other, by a simultaneous absolute rigour of form. It is from this contrast that Marten Kirbach’s painting derives its unique appeal.