Contributed by Theodora Bocanegra Lang / In his current solo show “Tactical Hugs, Practical Shrugs” at Gratin, Christoph Matthes – born in 1990 in Germany, now based in New York – intuitively explores imaginative childhood reminiscence through doubling, motif, and collage across a dozen cheeky paintings.
The larger works comprise twin canvases, hung touching each other. Many of the pairs are nearly mirror images, distinguished by a unique detail or feature. Candy pink trickles through the show and provides the background tone for three diptychs. This pastel shade underscores the youthful subject matter, such as animals both childlike and childish, toys, and patterns. Aspirational Regret shows reflected pairs of copulating zebras, with a superimposed resting figure in white lying across the panels. In Invigorating Envy are two groups of three dalmatian puppies, overlaid with hot pink outlines of bodies in coats. The largest piece is Aber Kaputt Ist Alles Nicht: two mirrored T. Rex skeletons behind uneven stacks of chunky toy trucks, over washes of pink. These works evoke a child’s dreamy playroom: blurry colors, fuzzy paint, nostalgic inconsistencies.
Several works offer glimpses of domestic interiors, scraps of a home. In Fortunate Son, we look up at the back of checkered trousers held up by suspenders. Checkered fabric again appears under twin irons in Das Bisschen Haushalt Macht Sich Eben Doch Nicht Von Allein against a peachy floral pattern, suggesting outdated wallpaper. Another retro design traverses the two panels of Not Many But More Than One, stretching behind two cans of the German soft drink Schwip Schwap. A mix of cola and orange soda, the drink remains popular, but the packaging replicated here is from the 1990s. The oversized cans, complete with striped straws, intimate a child’s perspective and summon something pleasant and familiar from the past: a sweet favorite, enjoyed in a comforting place.
Matthes calls attention to his work’s constructed nature, collecting various visual fragments that don’t always connect, illuminating the fogginess of recall. To like effect, he uses different applications for different collaged elements. Some are painted in thin, sheer layers, others in thick strokes or blobs of choppy paint. Still others are a mix of the two, emphasizing distinct and incongruous subjects sharing finite space. Matthes, Sandbox, Cutthroat captures this dynamic by way of two huge pairs of children’s scissors – one red, one blue – encircled by the decapitated heads of ostriches arranged around the perimeter.
Though most of the works reflect a cumulative cut-and-paste aesthetic, some have single subjects. A comparatively small work shows a fanned-out accordion and nothing else, surrounded by a layered hazy purple. An even smaller painting of an RV trailer in washed-out bubblegum pink, entitled Pride and Prejudice, is framed by thick, sticky blue and yellow bands. The show’s most emotive painting may be one of the smallest: Robby and Bobby is a golden rectangle presenting two puppies, patiently sitting and looking up with pleading eyes. Each has a checked bandana around its neck, and both glow misty red. They impart the vulnerability and desires held by memory.
“Christoph Matthes: Tactical Hugs, Practical Shrugs,” Gratin, 291 Grand Street, Floor 2, New York, NY. Through October 26, 2024.
About the author: Theodora Bocanegra Lang is a writer from New York. She has an MA from Columbia University and a BA from Oberlin College, both in Art History. She previously worked at Dia Art Foundation and Gavin Brown’s enterprise. You can find her @realtheodora.
