WOLFGANG STILLER’S MATCHSTICKMEN
At Miart Gallery London
Opening June 22nd of 2021
Miart Gallery London is pleased to present the upcoming solo exhibition of the German artist Wolfgang Stiller.
Born in 1961 in Wiesbaden, Wolfgang Stiller has been working as an artist for almost 40 years. He has travelled across numerous countries, including the USA, China, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Taiwan. Gaining experience and exposure to different cultures is very important to Stiller and allowed him to develop his unique oeuvre.
After completing his education at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Fine Art Academy, he received multiple awards and has been in more than 140 solo and group exhibitions. His artworks are presented in the international museum collections in Wuhan Museum of Fine Art (China); Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern (Germany); Museum K.E. Osthaus Museum, Hagen (Germany); Public collection of Land Hessen (Germany); Museum Bochum (Germany).
He faced the fall of the Berlin Wall and the height of popular culture. The artist is addressing a strong social commentary through the subject matters he chooses; however, this seriousness is always balanced out with playful undertones.
Having a very tangible, material form, many of Wolfgang Stiller's sculptures have resulted from his exploration and reflection on spiritual themes. In the interview with Mudart, he argued that "an artwork should express something […] essential, timeless some kind of fundamental insight. […] I want to create something which goes beyond my personal experience so it becomes relevant to people in general." Thus, the artist’s principal focus is on eternal topics, as reflected in his works.
Both the content of some Stiller's works and artistic process are influenced by Buddhist concepts and practices. While the artist stays open to various external cultural expressions, his creative process requires solitude, concentration, and meditation – inseparable from Buddhist teaching. Such pieces as Awakening and Monks reflect Stiller's deep interest in Buddhism. The former depicts Buddha's figure in three different states, recalling the process of spiritual transformation, while the latter displays three human figures in traditional Buddhist monk robes.
Matchstickmen is arguably the most recognisable series of sculptures in Wolfgang's artistic practice. Since he started Matchstickmen, his interest in bronze as the main material and the human head without a body as principal subject increased steadily. In German, "Streichholzkopf'', the German word for matchsticks, refers more strongly to the human head in a literal way (korf=head), which highlights the beauty and the playfulness of comparison between a matchstick and a human burnout. Many people believe that the burnt matchstick heads represent the "Burnout Syndrome," a condition that occurs after prolonged occupation stress, which is characterised by depersonalisation, exhaustion, and reduced belief in one's professional abilities.
Warning against politicisation and location of his work in a specific geographical context, in the interview with Mudart, Stiller explained that Matchstickmen series depicts "certain human conditions which we can find everywhere and any time in the past, present and most likely in the future as well. I reflect on the impermanence of human life, the waste of human resources, things like that. What is essential and will be relevant in 50 years from now as well."
Wolfgang Stiller prefers to leave the interpretation of his artworks open-ended, as he strongly believes that art should leave room for one's own thinking and imagination.