Matias Faldbakken
Galerie Eva Presenhuber is pleased to present Abstracts and Pewter Abstracts, its third solo exhibition by the Oslo-based artist and author Matias Faldbakken.
“All the works in this show are drawings: on paper, on canvas, and with pewter. And they are all abstract. I’ve written some sentences to clarify “drawing” and “abstract,” but things are not very clear and perhaps there is no other way than to put this in paradoxical terms.
Drawing has a strange essence. A drawing on a white sheet of pricey art paper can diminish the paper’s value; it seems easier to discard a piece of paper stained by a lousy drawing than to throw away the untouched sheet — which is straight up violent. On the other hand, a drawing doesn’t have to be done to be done. Drawing seems thin, slight, and doesn’t hold the nasty limitlessness of painting, it doesn’t go as “far”. Most, if not all, drawing gravitates toward the same level of questionable. Drawing is material image-making pitted against all the other images. Let every drawing be a critique of whatever hangs next to it. Drawing embodies the potency slash impotency of images.
On show is my compulsion to draw, drawn, and my reluctance to draw, drawn. Drawing is empathic denial and the way you draw is deeply embarrassing but it’s also yours. You will never draw straight because your hand has a dialect — or is it an accent? The lofty thing about a grown man drawing and the dubious thing about a middle-aged man drawing. A man drawing — an inoperative man.
Drawing might not have much to say about its trauma, the screen, but it’s still an antagonist in a screen climate. Drawing is a technology that hasn’t been updated. Charcoal on paper and ink on paper and pencil on paper has always looked like that. Radical charcoal. Beaten ink. A weakening image machine. Drawing has this troublesome, shallow, slow, scratchy, mute, warm, pale space in it that the screen doesn’t have. Drawing refuses to be fresh. Every pixel wants something from you but paper is not electric, it’s dead. Graphite is dead. Gesso ist tot. Drawing is satisfaction through the use of tools that are least controlled by others. Drawing is the original artistic impulse and the smartest and most clueless move is to go back to that. There’s an old saying among metal heads about heavy metal that I sometimes paraphrase and lend to drawing: drawing is ridiculous but we know that going in.
***
When I don’t draw, I write. As long as I write, drawing belongs to the fluid universe of not-writing. Drawing: a steady, yearlong execution of something that is not writing. Text allows me to bring joy to people with my concerns, drawing allows me to snatch it back. I draw against readability.
I write themes, I don’t draw themes. Text is politics, drawing is some form of everted politics and a more abstract attitude. When I say abstract I don’t mean abstract, I mean abstract. Abstract is not an eight letter word.
I’m an abstract artist, an abstractionist, and abstract must mean abstracted from something and here abstraction means abstracted away from story. There is no story. Abstraction means halting the monsters of narration.
***
Reticence and disagreement shows itself to me in abstract forms. What forms? A man can dream and sometimes he dreams about panicky abstraction. Defeatist abstraction. Adversarial abstraction. A search for an abstraction more linked to well-well-well, to ehhh, to skaz, a nervescape, indebtedness, to one of those nightmarish reversals and to when-I’m-not-so-sure-about-that-becomes-form. All of the above rather than eyeball solutions, relevant painterly design or strategized weirdness.
The idea of abstraction is bigger than the abstract thing, hence all the disappointment. Abstraction is a form of frustration and Wilhelm Worringer has a quote from 1908 that I like: ”The urge to abstraction, is the outcome of a great inner unrest inspired in man by the phenomena of the outer world.”
Drawing is a way to abstract. It’s also a way to act. When you act you err, said Hegel. So here is an act which can’t be rationalised but still demands to be undertaken. And there you are, abstracting away, funeral by funeral.”
Matias Faldbakken
Matias Faldbakken was born in 1973 in Hobro, Denmark. He lives and works in Oslo. His work is represented in major museums and private collections worldwide, including Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO; National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture, Oslo, NO; Telenor Art Collection, Oslo, NO; in der Speyer Family Collection, New York, NY, US. Recent exhibitions include Form Matters, Matter Forms. Vom Readymade zum Warenfetisch, Kunst Museum Winterthur, CH (2024); ReCollect!, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, CH (2023); Before Tomorrow – Astrup Fearnley Museet 30 Years, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, NO (2023); Lorck Schive Kunstpris, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, NO (2021); Effects of Good Government in the Pit, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, NO (2017); Beyond Borders, Beaufort Triennial 2015: Beyond Borders, Schore, BE (2015); Fuel Sculpture, Art Altstetten Albisrieden, Vulkanplatz, Zurich, CH (2015); Le Consortium, Dijon, FR (2013); Intervention #21 – Matias Faldbakken, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL (2012); Portrait Portrait of of a a Generation Generation, WIELS, Centre d’art contemporaine, Brussels, BEL (2012); Oslo, Texas, The Power Station, Dallas, TX, US (2011); That Death of Which One Does Not Die, Kunsthalle Friedricianum, Kassel, DE (2010).
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CANVAS #120 (Der Krieg Vergrössert / Poems by Poe)
2024
Pencil, ink, photocopy, inkjet and paper on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
JUDAS UNDERSCORE
2024
Sand cast pewter
29 x 119 cm / 11 3/8 x 46 7/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
PEWTER ESCALATION
2025
Sand cast pewter
63 x 60 cm / 24 3/4 x 23 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #123 (Ink Tiles)
2024
Pencil, ink, oil and paper on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
TYRANT WITHOUT YRAN
2024
Sand cast pewter
Object 1 26 x 132 cm / 10 1/4 x 52 in
Object 2 26 x 121 cm / 10 1/4 x 47 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
SKAZ
2024
Charcoal on gesso on canvas
40 x 30 cm / 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Untitled
2024
Pencil, ink, whiteout on paper
Sheet 57 x 146 cm / 22 1/2 x 57 1/2 in
Frame 67.5 x 156.5 x 4 cm / 26 5/8 x 61 5/8 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Untitled
2022/2023
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 75 x 109.5 cm / 29 1/2 x 43 1/8 in
Frame 58 x 119.5 x 4 cm / 22 7/8 x 47 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Untitled
2023
Pencil, ink, whiteout on paper
Sheet 57 x 149.5 cm / 22 1/2 x 58 7/8 in
Frame 67.5 x 159.5 x 4 cm / 26 5/8 x 62 3/4 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Abstract Is Not An Eight Letter Word
2023/2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 101.5 x 66.5 cm / 40 x 26 1/8 in
Frame 111.5 x 76 x 4 cm / 44 x 30 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
PEWTER ESCALATION
2025
Sand cast pewter
24.5 x 35.5 x 1.5 cm / 9 5/8 x 14 x 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
HOOK
2025
Sand cast pewter
93.5 x 21.5 cm / 36 3/4 x 8 1/2 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Job On The Dung Heap
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 122 x 69.5 cm / 48 x 27 3/8 in
Frame 132.5 x 82 x 4 cm / 52 1/8 x 32 1/4 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Ink Tiles
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 150 x 62 cm / 59 x 24 3/8 in
Frame 160.5 x 71.5 x 4 cm / 63 1/8 x 28 1/4 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Ink Tiles
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 150 x 59.5 cm / 59 x 23 3/8 in
Frame 160 x 70.5 x 4 cm / 63 1/8 x 27 7/8 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Ink Tiles
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 150 x 60.5 cm / 59 x 23 7/8 in
Frame 160 x 70.5 x 4 cm / 63 1/8 x 27 7/8 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Titus
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 107 x 78 cm / 42 1/8 x 30 3/4 in
Frame 117 x 88 x 4 cm / 46 x 34 5/8 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
TITUS
2024
Sand cast pewter
116.5 x 27.5 x 2 cm / 45 7/8 x 10 7/8 x 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Titus
2024
Charcoal, ink on brown paper
Sheet 138.5 x 89.5 cm / 54 1/2 x 35 1/4 in
Frame 151 x 99 cm / 59 1/2 x 39 in
© Matias Faldbakken
DEBET
2024
Sand cast pewter
32 x 118 cm / 12 5/8 x 46 1/2 in
© Matias Faldbakken
ABSTRACT IS NOT AN EIGHT LETTER WORD
2024
Plaster cast pewter
15.5 x 125 x 3 cm / 6 1/8 x 49 1/4 x 1 1/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
ACCOMPLISH WITHOUT CCOMPLIS
2024
Sand cast pewter
19.5 x 65.5 cm / 7 5/8 x 25 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
Luddite Without Uddit
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 147.5 x 57 cm / 58 1/8 x 22 1/2 in
Frame 158 x 67 x 4 cm / 62 1/4 x 26 1/4 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
WELL WELL WELL IF IT ISN'T THE CONSEQUENCES OF TELEVISION
2024
Ink and paper on gesso on canvas
50 x 40 cm / 19 5/8 x 15 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #124 (My Eyes at the Time of Revelation)
2024
Pencil, ink and paper on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
My Eyes At The Time Of Revelation
2024
Pencil, ink on paper
Sheet 101.5 x 66.5 cm / 40 x 26 1/8 in
Frame 111.5 x 76 x 4 cm / 44 x 30 x 1 5/8 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #125 (Dynasty)
2024
Pencil and ink on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
ABSTRACT IS NOT AN EIGHT LETTER WORD
2025
Painting: Charcoal and ink on gesso on canvas
Object: Sand cast pewter
90 x 70 cm / 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 in
Object 92 x 23 x 2 cm / 36 1/4 x 9 x 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
UNTITLED
2024
Sand cast pewter
132.5 x 25.5 cm / 52 1/8 x 10 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #126 (Debt Anal Europe Rain)
2025
Charcoal and pencil on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #122 (Abstract without bstrac)
2024
Oil, ink, charcoal and pencil on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken
LAS PALMAS
2024
Pencil and ink on gesso on canvas
90 x 70 cm / 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 in
© Matias Faldbakken
READY SOFT
2025
Pencil and ink on gesso on canvas
90 x 70 cm / 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 in
© Matias Faldbakken
PENCIL ESCALATION
2025
Pencil on gesso on canvas, glued on canvas
40 x 30 cm / 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
© Matias Faldbakken
CANVAS #121 (Sail / Poems by Poe)
2024
Pencil, charcoal, photocopy and paper on gesso on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm / 60 x 60 in
© Matias Faldbakken