Thilo Heinzmann and His Painting

Thilo Heinzmann, born in Berlin in 1969, is one of the most significant voices of a generation of German artists that scrutinise painting and its history, exalting the potential which it still expresses. Often using uncommon materials such as chipboard, styrofoam, nail polish, resins, pigments, fur, wadding, aluminium and jute, Heinzmann has worked over the last twenty-five years to create new paths within a visual language endowed with a powerful tactile quality. The new exhibition at the Perrotin in Shanghai is a demonstration of how the work of Heinzmann is a reflection on the essential elements of painting - composition, surfaces, form, colour, light, consistency and temporal factors. These components issue forth in iconic compositions, yet not stiff or predictable. The wise balancing of fullness and emptiness, along with the material nature of colour and pigments bring a unique dynamism to the work of Heinzmann along with an original sense of movement, earning the artist a place in some of the most prestigious private and public collections in the world.