Markus Amm’s work is informed by a deep-seated concern with abstraction, which he explores in monochromatic paintings, relief-like assemblages, photograms and large-format wall pieces. Reducing visual elements to basic geometric forms and concolorous areas, Amm’s work revisits central concerns of the Constructivist and Minimalist movements.
Markus Amm has created several oil paintings on paper for the GAK, bringing in each the ambivalent aspects of abstract visual representation to the fore. Does the image depict a formalist rectangle, or a window onto a space of undefined depth? Spattered paint and suggestive layers of various colours both above and beneath the dark, seemingly monochromatic surface of these works creates an impression of depth that reveals and conceals in one and the same moment. Oscillating between the poles of something and nothing, Amm’s images demonstrate the potential of abstract representation.