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Mind the gap! Discretion is the better part of valour. It remains undecided whether the gap is dangerous or simply an expecting void to be filled by the viewer. Figuratively speaking art can be both - and more.

Intending to hover as long as possible between perception and conception the German artist Matthias Schwab handles fundamental issues of existence and the void corresponding to Marcel Duchamp´s dictum: “Art is not what one sees ... Art is the gap.”

His installations and paintings are playful propositions that point out what is unseen and caution against then ambiguity of any notion and figure. Schwab shows works from the statements series and the void - works project which evolved from the Ansbach Art Price he was awarded in 2012. Further he is presenting a new installation designed for LOFT: Panem et circenses - bread and circuses. Taking up the phrase of the roman satirist Juvenal (1st century AD) Schwab is constructing an equipollency between art and contemporary strategies of distraction: Campaign goodies or major events that are used by those in political or industrial power to get our minds off social questions. Moreover bread and circuses are the tangibles of an affluent society based on economic growth which is marginalizing the balance weight of spiritual values.

Matthias Schwab (born 1974) studied Psychology and Philosophy in Bamberg before graduating in fine arts at Bauhaus University Weimar and received numeruous grants and prices.