Fabian Treiber (b. 1986) works within the frame of abstraction, yet important elements of figurative art coexist in his artworks. Moving along a logic of shifting boundaries, between the abstract and the figurative world, the visual depictions that Treiber uses derive from the everyday image décor. Uniting the two art forms would be considered to be a challenge. But creating a balance does not seem necessary. His visual ambivalence still stands well and provides a more distinctive character as well as a greater quality by being flexible and open to stimulate more than one interpretations.
Words: Yannis Kostarias
Seemingly unfinished compositions in Treiber’s fragmented spaces look like asking for further painting work to achieve a final visual representation. However, this is not required. The “undeveloped” paintings remain alive and equally coexist next to the complete compositions. These unfinished details can be read as an act to describe the journey of Treiber’s art process. For him, the importance of the process really does matter as he aims to tell a story within the strict boundaries of his canvas. In general, his canvases provide the unique space for these processes to take place, to project them and to establish new ones. Furthermore, the artist invites the visitor to intellectually fill the gaps using his/her mind to suggest more interpretations. By ignoring the end artwork result, the artist raises the potential variety of explanations regarding his visual composition. In order to issue the challenge, Treiber lays down the gauntlet to his art encounters and presents a creative interplay of fierce imagination.
The canvas operates as a fertile and autonomous space for Treiber. Colourful palettes and manifold pictorial depictions build a state of freedom in their own right. The German artist employs dynamic gestures of abstraction to delineate the artistic arrangements on his canvas deconstructing the shape and lines of his depicted objects. Due to an underlying sense of an illustrative simplicity, almost diagrammatic, Treiber’s codes of communication subsume deeper functions. Some of his artworks can be seen as contemporary still-life paintings that highlight his particular language of sketchy-looking graphic representations.
From another point of view, the importance of fragmentary arrangements is also an additional visual information in his vocabulary introducing a graphic notion of transparency. Attempting to explore the space in which Treiber’s paints, the visual effect of transparency works effectively as it blurs the lines between abstraction and figuration. Probably, that visual effect seems to be a critical point in the artist’s technique. Along with a variety of pale colour use and mixture on canvas, the line’s designing process consist the main core of Treiber’s artistry, irrespective if it represents a vase, an apple or another domestic landscape; whether abstract or not.
Born in Ludwigsburg, Treiber lives and works in Stuttgart, Germany. Along with important awards, grants and scholarships, such as the Silkscreen Grant from the Lepsien Art Foundation in 2017 and the Prize for Graphics of the Walter Stohrer Foundation in 2014, his artworks have been exhibited internationally in many art galleries in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France and beyond.
In his interview with ArtVerge, Treiber shares his approach on art issues and provides some interesting answers about his daily life. Check it out!
http://fabiantreiber.de/
