Matthias Garcia

In Matthias Garcia’s works, nature and humanity intertwine into blooming, jubilant landscapes. In his worlds on the fringes of reality, lascivious nymphs cohabit with two-headed mermaids, flowers adopt cherubic faces and discreet little girls wander among the climbing plants. His evanescent figures melt into luxuriant vegetation, where darkened colors are awakened by bright pigments. Stylistically, Matthias Garcia’s paintings evoke surreal, psychedelic landscapes. References to art history – whether to Francisco Goya, Odilon Redon or Jérôme Bosch – hybridize with those to popular culture, such as Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid, manga culture and video games.

“The boundaries between fear and pleasure, natural and artificial, rational and belief seem to blur, paving the way for the reign of complexity. Through his aesthetics, Matthias Garcia familiarizes us with a world – his own, but also one of the possible worlds of tomorrow. Faced with the need to ensure inter-species coexistence and the diversity of life forms, Matthias Garcia depicts, painting after painting, drawing after drawing, a world that invites us not so much to secede from reality as to curl up in the hollow of its troubled immanence.”