Mateo Cohen

Mateo Cohen is introduced by Zweigstelle Berlin.

Mateo Cohen was born 1981 in Bogotá, Colombia, he lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Bogotá, Colombia
2000 - 2004 Fine Arts, Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia
2009 - 2011 Fine Arts, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany
2011 - 2012 Master of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany

"I paint images that seek to not put objects in front of the viewer's gaze. I clear out the surface of object-like painterly impressions in order to keep the image empty and to escape from any figure-background relationships. Thereby, the viewer enters through the surface of the painting into the image's space and comes out to the surface leaving the image behind. In other words: we experience (while moving with perception) the image as within a given surface (matter) and the surface as the construction of a given image (composition).

This attempt could be understood as a simple exercise of arranging the painting's building parts, that leads to nothing else but to painting itself. However, the resulting works seem not to be easily defined under this category. The use of frames, canvas and paint sets a context for my artistic practice and in the search of ways to relate these “materials” with one another, keeping borders, frames or definitions between means of image-making (drawing, sculpture, painting...) is no longer relevant.

For me, it seems more relevant to unfold the complexity of the surface and explore, through the act of painting, how space is concealed and disclosed by matter. In other words: how images come into being."

(Artist statement Mateo Cohen)

© images: Courtesy Zweigstelle Berlin