Matias Faldbakken

Represented By

About Matias Faldbakken

Matias Faldbakken employs vandalism and a destructive attitude towards pop culture in his visual practice, circling around the idea of artistic production as a ‘negative progression’. This might at first appear to be a cynical approach towards art production, but is rather his exploration of the oxymoron at the heart of the idea ‘if art is the opposite of work, why work?

Matias Faldbakken employs vandalism and a destructive attitude towards pop culture in his visual practice, circling around the idea of artistic production as a ‘negative progression’. This might at first appear to be a cynical approach towards art production, but is rather his exploration of the oxymoron at the heart of the idea ‘if art is the opposite of work, why work?’ Often using language as a starting point to make his images, obscuring, suppressing and destroying letters, phrases and sentences in order to create visual abstractions, Faldbakken’s interest lies in abstraction as a technique for rejection, rather than as an aesthetic exercise. Faldbakken (b. 1973), lives and works in Oslo. He studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen and later at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. His work has been exhibited widely in Europe, most recently in “Shocked into Abstraction” at the National Museum of Art, Oslo which later travelled to the IKON Gallery in Birmingham, in “Extreme Siesta” at the Kunsthalle St Gallen in Switzerland, and he is currently showing in “You Think You Go But You Gon’t” at Objectif in Antwerp. Forthcoming exhibitions in 2010 include shows at the Kunsthalle Friedricanum, Kassel, Schinkel Pavillion, Berlin and the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen in Germany.

Career Timeline

Art Fair Career Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions