Matthias Franz

GRIMM is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Matthias Franz (b. 1984, Ilmenau, DE) at the London gallery, opening this Summer. Coinciding with London Gallery Weekend (June 6 - 8, 2025), this will be Franz’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and his first exhibition in the city. 

For Franz, painting is a necessarily slow and thoughtful process. Inspired variously by literature, cinema and critical theory, the artist uses paint and canvas to visualise an interior notion or question. Muted earth tones are contrasted with shadowy outlines and full primary hues that comprise invented architectural spaces or uncanny perspectives.The tension of push and pull within his brushstrokes creates a dynamic contrast, capturing the sensation of heavy, enlarged forms giving way to more delicate arrangements, infused with the imbalanced weight and proportions one would find in a dream. 

These new paintings by Franz revisit some of his previous motifs while also incorporating new subjects, drawn from several literary sources. Joseph Conrad’s 1900 novel Lord Jim and its tale of a ship’s first officer and the poor decision he makes that leads to the near-demise of his crew and passengers, to be entrenched in guilt for the rest of his life, is one such subject.

As in the novel, the ship is presented as a metaphor for class, with this theme of societal order unified across the work. Interior scenes populated by uncanny motifs and figures leave the viewer to examine the relationship between them, informed by Franz’s interest in structuralism and its attempts to recognise patterns in social structures. Throughout these new works, Franz uses narrative to allude to the power imbalances that govern us, populating his spaces and landscapes with complex networks of motifs and the associations they bring with them.