Fabian Marti Born 1979 in Fribourg, Switzerland

Lives and works in Paris, France and Zurich, Switzerland

Producing all of his works manually, he embraces mechanical processes that require signature traces of the artist’s hand at work.

 

His ceramic figures, which he has been creating since 2011, seem to be deformed by strong whirlwind-like forces. The colors and shapes resemble Marti's photograms and hint again his ongoing exploration of alternate levels of perception. In his work, Marti reinterprets symbols and reviews the cultural history of modernity and beyond, blending a journey through time, both past and present in simultaneity. His works reflect an ongoing research into esoteric symbolism, cultural anthropology, music and scientific debates. At the same time, he is concerned with exploring the origins of creativity, authorship and the role of the artist within society.

 

Marti mostly works in cosmic black which is occasionally and subtly accentuated by color. He is known for his photograms created by scanning objects such as crystals, bread and skulls with scanners and photocopying machines that relate strongly to formalism, abstraction and op art. Furthermore, the artist is interested in the sensations related to a loss of control and the access to the subconscious. Never working directly with the camera, his large-format prints are either photograms or created by a mere desktop scanner, evolving this illuminating black and white chromacity that lend them the patina of forensic evidence. His subjects – spirals, crosses, runes and crystals – start merging to dissipate into ironic forms on the traditional vanitas.