Matthias Gálvez

Matthias Gálvez lives and works in Berlin. Studied painting at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee. Master student of Werner Liebmann.

The theme of the ‘figure in space’ runs like a common thread through Matthias Gálvez's work. Whether group scenes, portraits of women, female and male nudes, self-portraits or biblical and mythological themes - these often classical themes are composed in ever new constellations. Existential states and human relationships, the moods, attitudes and gestures, as well as the psychologisation of the sitters, seem familiar to us, the viewers of the pictures, in their everydayness - and yet are alien to us in their ambivalence. What makes Gálvez's work so special and extraordinary is the emotional density of his pictures - especially in his large, masterfully staged group portraits. Gálvez projects his pictures directly onto the viewer, allowing them to get close to the action. The figures become an immediate counterpart. Another characteristic of his work is the pictorial reality composed of different segments. The artist's painting style is always alienated and transformed by an abstract pictorial event. His multi-figure paintings are never simple representations of reality alone. (André Lindhorst, 2024)