Frank Nitsche was born in 1964 in Gorlitz, Germany. He graduated from Hochschule für Bildende Künste, the art academy in Dresden where Gerhard Richter had also attended. Along with his peers at the academy including the likes of Thomas Scheibitz and Eberhard Havekost, Nitsche has been defined as part of the Dresden School generation and has continued to receive international acclaim as one of the leading artists of contemporary German painting.

Nitsche’s paintings could be described as a hybrid aesthetic that is conceived through amalgamating abstract and figurative structures in visual language. His works are inspired through motifs such as the diverse array of mass media communicated images and the excessively consumed commodity products that overwhelm our contemporary society. In transforming their impression and engaging in a repetitive process of deconstruction and creation, the source materials are ultimately reassembled to create a distinctly tangible abstract image.

The production process begins with the digital editing of these ubiquitous images. The fundamental geometric forms (lines and shapes) present within the imagery are not only appropriated to create the various elements that constitute the overall composition of his works, but further serve to evoke multiple layers and dimensions upon the picture plane. The contrasting combination of serene opaque surfaces and dynamic lines metaphorically represent the discrepancies between thought and perception as modes of complexity and clarity. While seemingly in a state of conflict they simultaneously accord with one another, suggesting that they are in fact, inextricably connected. Nitsche translates the proximity between these two paradigms into artistic language, and within his works implicates the manner in which they coexist within the real world.

This claim for the dualistic plays a crucial role within Nitsche’s works. Contradictory aspects of harmony and dissonance, stillness and movement, symmetry and asymmetry respectively interact with one another from opposite ends of the spectrum, and for a fleeting moment seem to suggest an inner coherence before diffusing into their own ambiguity. The pure geometric forms discernably resemble real existing objects, yet Nitsche does not intend to depict a comprehensive perspective through such manner of representation. Rather, he challenges our standards and modes of perception with a subtle air of irony.

Nitsche’s works serve as narratives that reflect upon contemporary visual perception and its cognitive structures, whilst at the same time contains references to European art history with its conception of Cubism and Constructivism. In placing significant emphasis on color and redefining early modernist theories on complimentary contrasts in the context of the present, Nitsche instills depth to the perception of his works with a level of historicity that transcends the tides of time.

The exhibition marks Nitsche’s third visit to Japan.