Jan Merta: Geist und Materie

Jan Merta’s works focus on simple pictorial motifs drawn from everyday life, which though a process of abstraction and alienation acquire a complexity and enigmaticness that transcend the commonplace. But depth of content in no way means a neglect of form: transparent, everyday objects or architectonic fragments, seemingly dissolving in the artist’s brushwork, are placed against monochrome or blended backgrounds. Jan Merta renounces the clear separation of figure and ground in favour of their complex merging and interpenetration. Finely abstracted details are combined with the representational in such a way that traditional motifs – still lifes, portraits, landscapes etc. – assume an enigmatic and at times underlying humorous or ironic quality.