Matthias Brandes Biography
Matthias Brandes was born in Bochum, Germany. From 1969 to 1976 he studied painting, art history and pedagogy at the Academy and University of Hamburg. 1976 he graduated in Art Pedagogy. Since 1979, after qualifying for high school teaching, he has dedicated himself exclusively to painting, living in Hamburg and part of the year near Meolo. 1985 he held his first solo exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in Hamburg. From 1989 to 1992 he taught drawing at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, simultaneously holding numerous personal and collective exhibitions in Germany. In 1993 he moved with his family to Venice and between 1993 and 1999 he worked as a graphic designer, especially for wineries. Since 1999, intense exhibition activity in Italy, he has been present in the main art fairs, continuing to set up numerous personal and collective exhibitions in galleries in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, USA, RP China. In 2012 he participated in the Creative Cities Collection, Barbican Center/London organized by Olympic Fine Arts/Beijing, then he participated in the first Ecorea Jellobuk Biennale/Sori Art Center/Jeonju/South Korea. In 2013 he was at the exhibition "Brandes & Brandes - convergenze " together with Juliane Brandes, goldsmith artist, at Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice. In 2014 he was at the exhibition "Augenblicke" Burg Kniphausen/Wilhelmshaven Germany. In 2015 he participated in the personal exhibition at the Canton Artfair/ Guangzhou RP China. In 2017 he was in a personal exhibition at the Kunstforum Wien and in 2018 a personal exhibition at the MAGI'900 Museum Pieve di Cento / Bologna. Matthias Brandes is an anomalous painter. A painter who uses the canvas as a support to sculpt an enchanted reality with the brush. Enchanted landscapes where houses huddle together in a silent embrace, perched on low hills or resting on flat lagoons. What catches the eye most about those constructions intended as geometric solids is the rough and rough material of which they are made. A very refined material, which Brandes obtains using fat egg tempera, without water, mixed with oil colour. Over everything, always, an exquisitely fifteenth-century harmony dominates, where every doubt is finally allayed in the perfect volumes of Piero della Francesca.
