Michael Conrads: Irresolute – Resolved

“Irresolute-Resolved” is the result of six months of work in Marso’s residency program. The exhibition is conceived as a pictorial and spacial parkour: colourful shapes intertwine in isometric perspective and saturate the canvas, mutating into abstract pieces and airy repetitive patterns. In the broad spectrum of Conrads visual work, what prevails is an intricate and exhaustive exploration of perception.

For almost ten years Michael Conrads has been visiting Mexico, intrigued by the mysticism of shamanic practices and the use of hallucinogens like mescaline by certain indigenous groups. Other sources of inspiration in his works come from novels and films by Jorodovsky, Mathias Goeritz’s color palette, Barragán’s architecture, and the exuberance of Pedro Friedeberg’s works. Additionally, places like Edward James’s Las Pozas in Xilitla and the chaos of Mexico City’s urban environment have had a profound impact on Conrads’s artistic practice.

In this exhibition Michael mixes a Huichol and mexican folkloric aesthetic with visual effects that refer to works by other German painters like Gerard Richter or Sigmar Polke. Further experimenting with the traditional and the unconventional, his silkscreens on glass and watercolours on paper accompany oils and acrylics on canvas which are layered with bits of spray paint and cardboard. Finished works are always unfinished, remaining in constant evolution. The unfinished quality of Conrads’s artwork is spun from the multiplicity of his formal references and the use of visual and technical hybrids to create each of these pieces.