Martin Spengler creates large-format picture reliefs that often extend well into the room and play with the actual reproduction of recognisable structures, such as grids and ornaments, on the one hand, and with the total dissolution of the image on the other hand. He expresses the thought that is most important to him: “I’m concerned with structures that reflect a particular social occurrence or architectonic functions. Be it a Mexican wave or a motorway junction or a cathedral – the external structure leads me to contemplate what lies behind it.” On the basis of a preliminary sketch, the artist slowly develops his pictorial idea through the activity of carving. Spengler is not concerned with creating a faithful representation in any of his works. Instead he wants to understand the work itself as a product of his epistemological achievement and thereby convey an intellectual added value. Spengler was born in Cologne in 1974 and studied with Prof. Karin Kneffel, first in Bremen, later as master student in her class in Munich.
