TOBY ZIEGLER: ESCAPISM

Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce ESCAPISM, a solo exhibition of new works by Toby Ziegler. This is the artist’s ninth solo exhibition with the gallery.

January 17 - February 22, 2025

Memory and the passing of time have long been two of the central themes in Ziegler’s work. In his practice, the artist combines figurative and abstract elements, computer modelling and painting, careful planning and chance. In his preparatory modelling of the images on the computer, a process which he describes as both alienating and mathematical, Ziegler builds non-narrative scenes. He creates a sense of stillness within his compositions, comparable to Dutch Old Master paintings, or the work of Giorgio Morandi and Vilhelm Hammershøi, where the experience of a long stretch of time is compressed into a single image. 

One of the entry points of the current series of works is elements taken from family photographs, which Ziegler has altered and transposed into imagined spaces. At times remaining visible and at others all but disappearing, these figures serve as gateways into certain moods and memories. 

Painting over the initial printed image in countless layers of transparent colours, Ziegler further modifies the appearance of the work. This build-up of transparent paint causes the lighter works to become increasingly pale and the darker works to deepen. The paint obscures what is underneath, leaving just the ghost of an image. Finally, painting over certain details, Ziegler emphasises patterns and surfaces, adding to the complex layered structure of his compositions. 

In the short story On Exactitude in Science by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, which Ziegler mentions as an analogy for the work, a map is drawn so precisely that it ends up covering the entirety of the depicted territory, eclipsing the existing landscape with its own reconstruction. Ziegler’s works similarly place visual layers over compositional constructs which are, in turn, based on scenes taken and reimagined from memory. Leaving a lingering effect, these building blocks become impossible to separate or fully perceive, with the viewer’s subjective impression adding a final layer of meaning.