Enrico Niemann Reimagines Spatial Experience Through Innovative Painting Techniques
Photo: Berlin-based artist Enrico Niemann in his studio, meticulously crafting his signature layered acrylic paint skins.
LAYERING, TEXTURE, AND THE INTERPLAY OF CHAOS AND ORDER
Enrico Niemann’s innovative painting techniques layer acrylic skins, creating dynamic works that blur the lines between painting and spatial experience, exploring themes of fragmentation and the interplay of chaos and order.
Enrico Niemann is a Berlin-based artist whose work transcends the traditional boundaries of painting. His innovative approach blends painting, sculpture, and spatial experience into captivating visual narratives. Niemann’s signature technique involves layering, folding, and transferring thin skins of acrylic paint, creating works that are both ethereal and grounded in tangible materiality. These layered paint skins, often resembling topographical landscapes, invite viewers into a dynamic encounter where perception shifts with every angle and play of light. The seemingly imperfect—bubbles, cracks, and distortions—are not flaws but deliberate traces of the creative process, adding depth and texture to his compositions. (Source: WOWwART Magazine)
Niemann’s unique technique evolved organically from his experimentation with transparent paint layers on clear foils. “These techniques developed from the working process,” he explains. “Transparent layers of paint suggest a ‘deep surface’ of particular intensity. This idea gave rise to early works in which I painted on clear foils, fused the individual layers, opened them up and experimented with layering and spaces in between. This led me to work with the thin acrylic paint skins that form as they dry and are themselves plastic films.” This process echoes decalcomania, a technique Niemann employs to create spontaneous and complex structures, reminiscent of Max Ernst’s surrealist landscapes. However, Niemann’s approach differs. “Décalcomanie refers to a copying technique used in monotypes. In some of my works I create a similar impression because I use plastic foil and thin colors that create this effect more or less by chance. Max Ernst used this technique to create spontaneous and extremely complex structures. I admire Max Ernst as an inventor and discoverer of new pictorial worlds in whose nuances you can lose yourself. For me, however, the landscape develops from the materiality of the paint and the medium. I take acrylic paint skin and use foils, which I drape and fold for the painting process. I use gravity and the physical conditions of my working materials and operate in a concrete model landscape. All of this has to do with surfaces and spatiality.”
Niemann’s artistry is a captivating blend of technical mastery, innovative vision, and profound thematic exploration.
The physical engagement of the viewer is paramount to Niemann’s artistic vision. His works are not static; they change constantly depending on the light, surroundings, and the viewer’s movement. “The works change constantly, depending on the light, the surroundings and even when you look at them. That’s why art needs the spatial experience, which therefore has a direct physical influence. In my three-dimensional works, it is important to me that the image is constantly in flux with my own movement and that new colour combinations arise. That’s why I see them as paintings, except that they are curved into the space. In addition, the pictorial space and the actual object are constantly blending anew in the movement. Perception oscillates between these two aspects. In the smaller works and when looking at the details, I am fascinated by the haptic stimuli of the uneven surface, which repeatedly break up the picture.”
“These techniques developed from the working process. Transparent layers of paint suggest a ‘deep surface’ of particular intensity.” –Enrico Niemann
Niemann embraces imperfections, viewing them as integral to the work’s materiality and production process. “It is exactly these ‘imperfections’ that refer to the materiality and the production process and make the works more approachable and varied. They allow continuous observation down to the smallest detail. As they show random processes, they simultaneously refuse to be composed and emphasize the segment-like character of an ‘all-over’,” he states. This tension between chaos and order, between strict forms and random structures, is central to his artistic vision. He describes it as a process of “structural arrangement and disintegration processes,” a dynamic interplay that reflects our own perception of order and structure. The concept of fragmentation is equally important, allowing for the creation of new contexts and perspectives through the combination of disparate elements. “Fragments are inspiring insofar as new contexts can be opened up by combining them, as is the case with collage. The transitions and breaks that open up the picture again are interesting. This aspect can probably also be found in my work.” Through his innovative techniques and exploration of these themes, Niemann creates art that is both visually stunning and intellectually stimulating, challenging viewers to engage with the work on multiple levels.
