Mateusz von Motz: Fuck Normal I Want Magic

For this year's  autumn tour of the Spinnerei Galleries in Leipzig Mateusz von Motz presents new works in a solo exhibition, which refers in form and content primarily to his titular, already iconic work series Fuck Normal I Want Magic from 2021. Back then, in this series he used for the first time a mirror as an image carrier (and pictorial space), on which that phrase, spray painted on the mirror, merged into an exciting pointed and multidimensional statement. In addition to new mirror works, von Motz adds sculptures and neon works from his oeuvre, which will reflect the diversity of artistic expression in the artist's work and deepen the show’s thematic starting point around the topic of Self Care. 

Von Motz expresses himself in a variety of media, from painting to sculpture, object art to installation. Essential for him is to have a reference to the image carrier or object on which he acts upon. Already iconic are his mirror works, for which he combines text and image on mirrors. A strategy that refers, among other cultural backgrounds and phenomena, to the digital meme culture, which in turn ties in with the popular genres and visual strategies of the poster, the comic, and advertising. In his work, the artist mixes the communication strategy of direct address intermedially with the mirror as a pictorial space into which the viewer enters, in which reality and virtuality blur together, and the subject is thrown back onto intimate, psychological levels of self-observation. The moment of introspection and that of transformation appear in a multidimensionality: Freudian (self)questioning appears as well as a re-actualization of mythological narratives such as that of Narcissus, with von Motz's works providing an ironic as well as empathic commentary on a narcissistic society. This society is mirrored here in its collective numbing in the representations within social media. In this sense, von Motz ultimately confronts visitors with the choice of remaining in the dream world controlled by machines or being freed from the simulation. Self Care appears - quite in the ancient tradition - as a complex theme: as a social paradigm, a call to self-care, an everyday life experience and a critical analysis in equal measure.

Mateusz von Motz *1985 in Chorzow, PL, lives and works in Świnoujście (Usedom) and Poznań | 2019 Master of Arts, Royal College of Art London, UK | 2016 Juergen Teller Ltd, London | 2016 Master student with Juergen Teller, Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, DE | 2014 Studies with Holger Felten/Friederike Girst, Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg | 2012 Bachelor of Architecture with Markus Emde, Regensburg University of Technology, DE | 2004 Studies in Art History, University of Regensburg | Since 2012, Mateusz von Motz's works have already been shown and collected internationally in solo and group exhibitions, for example in London, Marseille, Edinburgh, Milan, Skopje, Tokyo and New York. In 2018/19 von Motz collaborated with COS, who let him transform one of their stores in London into an exhibition: Coal Drop Yard, King Gross Store, London, UK.