David Weiss (born August 28, 1985 in Fulda, Germany) photographs, paints, draws comics, makes woodcuts, screen prints and bronze casting. The techniques often mix with each other. For example, woodcuts are printed and then painted over, sprayed and turned into collages.
The themes are philosophical observations from the fields of science, society and literature.
Awarded a scholarship from the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture for visualising sustainable pasture and forestry in Mongolia, his thesis was an interdisciplinary work exploring possible ways in which visual communication could help convey scientific findings to illiterate people. His prints have featured in regional exhibitions in Hesse since 2006 and more widely since 2010. His practice includes painting, woodcutting, screen printing and etching.
His realistic paintings are based on his own photographs, trying to capture the atmosphere of everyday moments, and paradoxically being rooted in both the present feelings of emptiness and uncertainty as well as an encouraging familiarity. His abstract paintings explore the freedom he enjoys as a person and as an artist, paying attention to and observing his inspiration and the shapes appearing on the canvas. Enchanted places or strange found objects are incorporated into his works, whether from his month-long study tours to Mongolia or Madagascar or in his home village in Vogelsberg, Hesse. Weiss is both locally rooted and cosmopolitan; he is present in the here and now, and his art shows an acute awareness of history.
In his graphic work, he creates a satirical parallel universe from everyday situations, using naive motives from comics: in a surreal set of drawings and lithographs we encounter ghostly figures that emerge from the past or the unconscious; for example, the phantoms of Madagascar. In Weiss’s artworks, borders form the focus, whereby the peripheral – as applied inter-culturalism – gains in importance.
Weiss says, ‘In my artistic work, I try to process in a stylistically different way what concerns me in my life or what I have experienced. These can be abstract works that spring from my subconscious, naive comic-style graphics that tell stories or representational works.’
www.david-weiss.com
Exhibitions
2014
Stopping Places IV – Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin
Kunstspaziergang – Kulturverein Landenhausen, Landenhausen
Schloss Eisenbach, Eisenbach
Double Feature with Phillip Bölter and David Weiss – Marleen’s, Fulda
Galerie Petschelt and Rasch, Kassel
2015
Stopping Places V – Kai Dikhas Gallery, Berlin
Transmitting Trauma – Kai Dikhas Gallery, Berlin
Madagasyart – 59 Rivoli, Paris
Polar – Galerie Petschelt und Rasch, Kassel
2016
Provinz – Kai Dikhas Gallery, Berlin
Book Illustration
Steffen Wunder: Through Dream and Time: The Story of Sophie and Mr. Zickel. Berlin: Autumnus Verlag, 2014
Source: the artist; Akathe Te Beshen catalogue, Galerie Kai Dikhas, 2014; http://kaidikhas.com/de/artist/david_weiss/biography