Mott Projects 16-18 Livingston St. Catskill, NY  |   mottprojects.com

Mott Projects is pleased to present SWEET OBLIVION, a solo exhibition by Hamburg based artist Stefan Wiens. This is Wien’s first solo exhibition in New York and the United States. Join us for an opening reception on Friday, May 3rd from 6-8pm.

Stefan Wiens’ creations go beyond aesthetics – they observe, comment on and question the very fabric of social and socio-cultural conditions. His work is a thought-provoking journey into the intricacies of our world, inviting you to explore and reflect. Having studied art at the prestigious College of Fine Arts in Hamburg under the guidance of Anselm Reyle, Wiens brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to his craft. His abstract paintings, intricate drawings and larger-than-life sculptures are a testament to his artistic prowess.

Wiens’ most striking works are his polystyrene sculptures – metre-high blocks of polystyrene cut with a chainsaw and then painted. The motifs, such as Mickey Mouse, Batman, Hello Kitty and Skull, are inspired by pop culture, art history and subcultures such as punk music and skating. The artist uses these (anti-)heroes thematically to create an interaction between the viewer and the work – a social circumstance that is not always easy to convey is communicated in a formal transformation of cute, childlike motifs that everyone can relate to, making them universally understandable.

As Till Bick writes:

Wiens’ sculptures are characterized by their textured surfaces and monochrome colors. Inspired by ancient mythology and the subconscious, his works evoke a sense of familiarity twisted with the unknown. Blackened sentinels, charred remains, like burnt matches, their flames tamed, once vibrant wood – now silent forms – etched into the darkness.In a dark exploration of pop culture icons, the figures appear both playful and grotesque, inviting viewers to confront their own perceptions of reality and illusion. SWEET OBLIVION delves into the borderland between consciousness and subconsciousness.

The sculptures, with their rough textures and distorted features, seem like vessels of forgotten memories and hidden longings. Wiens invites us to embrace ambiguity, to lose ourselves in the sweet oblivion of the unknown and discover the unexpected beauty that lies within.

Stefan Wiens (b. 1986) lives and works in Hamburg, DE. His childhood and adolescence in the village of Visbek was marked by encounters with subcultural phenomena such as skateboarding, punk rock and visual imagery from pop culture like MTV and cartoons. Wiens learned carpentry and worked in this profession before he went to study at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg. There he studied Fine Arts under Andrea Tippel and Werner Büttner before switching to the painting class of Anselm Reyle. While there he dealt primarily with the subject of sculpture and his first large-format, larger-than-life pop sculptures made of styrofoam were created. This is his first solo exhibition in the United States.