Overview
In a practice encompassing sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics and socially-based projects, Fabian Marti explores ideas around artistic production and identity. Examining visual codes, he uses recurring pictorial themes to establish an almost hieroglyphic vocabulary.
Producing all of his works manually, he embraces mechanical processes that require signature traces of the artist’s hand at work.
His ceramic figures, which he has been creating since 2011, seem to be deformed by strong whirlwind-like forces. The colors and shapes resemble Marti's photograms and hint again his ongoing exploration of alternate levels of perception. In his work, Marti reinterprets symbols and reviews the cultural history of modernity and beyond, blending a journey through time, both past and present in simultaneity. His works reflect an ongoing research into esoteric symbolism, cultural anthropology, music and scientific debates. At the same time, he is concerned with exploring the origins of creativity, authorship and the role of the artist within society.
Marti mostly works in cosmic black which is occasionally and subtly accentuated by color. He is known for his photograms created by scanning objects such as crystals, bread and skulls with scanners and photocopying machines that relate strongly to formalism, abstraction and op art. Furthermore, the artist is interested in the sensations related to a loss of control and the access to the subconscious. Never working directly with the camera, his large-format prints are either photograms or created by a mere desktop scanner, evolving this illuminating black and white chromacity that lend them the patina of forensic evidence. His subjects – spirals, crosses, runes and crystals – start merging to dissipate into ironic forms on the traditional vanitas.
Selected works
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Frog and Dog (Rue de Rivoli), 2023 -
bc1qpl88e06lhlw4agjfsyclgga6x96vxwvzujuq67, 2022
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3KX2eaDFK7oDZ5kAgCqzJSX9s92xdKZk6B, 2020
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37L7EL37q6q5SjDgicERnit8YVcz6Jizko, 2020
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I.L.N. Chapter 1 (Stories 2017-2019), 2019
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I LÄBE NO (Lutz & Abstraktion Nr. 3), 2019
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FM Studio Chair (Ralph), 2019
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Deep Egg (Kosmik), 2016
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White Circles, 2016
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Many Ourobori 1, 2016
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Hanging Sculpture (COLOR CHANGE), 2015
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Ceramic Sunsets Sunset Muscles, 2014
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The Deep Self II, 2014
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Unused Energy II, 2014
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Capsule (Time), 2014
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OIKNHZ MULYHZJYI (All is All), 2014
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Fertilized Target Egg (Hey now!), 2014
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TwoHotel, 2013
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Sunsets Mussels Sunset Muscles, 2013
Selected exhibitions
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Shifting
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich. Maja Bajevic, Travis Boyer, Kenrick McFarlane, Fabian Marti, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Tobias Spichtig, Christine StreuliZahnradstrasse 21, Zurich
25 Jan - 29 Mar 2025Shifting Maja Bajevic, Travis Boyer, Kenrick McFarlane, Fabian Marti, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Tobias Spichtig, Christine Streuli January 25 - March 29, 2025 Zahnradstrasse 21, Zurich Galerie Peter Kilchmann is pleased...Read more -
Backstage Engelberg
Backstage EngelbergEngelberg (OW), Switzerland
23 Jun - 18 Aug 2024BACKSTAGE Engelberg A journey of discovery with 50 artists June 23 to August 18, 2024, Engelberg/OW The 'BACKSTAGE Engelberg' is an exhibition in predominantly hidden locations in the Alpine municipality...Read more -
RIDICULOUSLY YOURS?!
Deichtorhallen, Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, Germany 13 May - 27 Aug 2023These sections feature works by numerous important artists: from Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Sturtevant, Alfred Jarry, Sigmar Polke and Martin Kippenberger to contemporary...Read more -
30 Years Anniversary Exhibition
Galerie Peter Kilchmann
Rämistrasse, Zurich
3 Sep - 14 Oct 202230 Years Anniversary Exhibition Rita Ackermann (*1968 Budapest), Francis Alÿs (*1959 Antwerpen), Maja Bajevic (*1967 Sarajevo), Hernan Bas (*1978 Miami), Armin Boehm (*1972 Aachen), Marc Bauer (*1975 Genf), Monica Bonvicini...Read more -
Fabian Marti
We Never SleepSchirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
24 Sep - 28 Aug 2020Espionage is linked to the unauthorized procurement of rare secrets or confidential information. While in the past national governments spied on individuals or states, in times of digital communication private...Read more -
Fabian Marti
I LÄBE NOGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Zahnradstrasse, Zurich
6 Sep - 12 Oct 2019It was around 1970 when On Kawara commented on the phrase he famously sent by telegram repeatedly throughout his life from various points around the world: In a certain sense...Read more -
Warum Ich mich in eine Nachtigall verwandelt habe
Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland 27 Feb - 25 May 2016Three positions sharing an haptic quality, earnestness and a human scale. The exhibition title quotes a short story by Wolfgang Hildesheimer, who captures the absurdities of human life in a...Read more -
Fabian Marti
All is AllGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Zahnradstrasse, Zurich
29 Aug - 14 Oct 2014“All is All” – the spiritual idea of wholeness as diverseness of oneness, also understood as “All is One” – has long been a central idea to Marti's concept of...Read more -
Fabian Marti
Marti CollectionCentre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
15 Sep - 24 Nov 2013His aim was to integrate these with his own work in the presentation. The exchange process is an important element of the artist network because it not only characterises an...Read more -
I give the name violence to a boldness lying idle and enamored of danger
Armin Boehm, Fabian Marti and Erika VerzuttiGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Zahnradstrasse, Zurich
31 Aug - 20 Oct 2012In the case of Armin Boehm these sentiments show themselves in the artist’s use of multilayered dark colors, which he combines with unusual materials such as asphalt, metal, sand, or...Read more -
Die Nase des Michelangelo
Special location: Marktgasse 4 - 6, Zurich, Switzerland 10 - 19 Dec 2010Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Maja Bajević / Michael Bauer / Christoph Büchel / Valentin Carron / Urs Fischer / Peter Fischli & David Weiss / Bruno Jakob /...Read more -
Fabian Marti
End Egoic MindGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich
29 May - 24 Jul 2010The sculpture, The Death of Joan Vollmer B ., consists of a horizontal perforated chrome steel pipe that slowly turns around on its own axis. Lightbulbs are glowing in the...Read more -
Deux Pièces
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse 270, Zürich 7 Jun - 24 Jul 2009Mario Comensoli / Trudi Demut / Karl Geiser / Emma Kunz / Adolf Wölfli / Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Michael Bauer / Raffi Kalenderian / Zilla Leutenegger /...Read more -
Fabian Marti
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich 25 Oct - 20 Dec 2008For these new series, Fabian Marti made use of the range of magazine pages printed from the 1960s through to the 1980s. He chose black/white and color shots of prehistoric,...Read more -
15 Jahre Galerie Peter Kilchmann 1992 - 2007
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich 30 Aug - 11 Oct 2008Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Maja Bajević / Michael Bauer / Willie Doherty / Bruno Jakob / Jochen Kuhn / Zilla Leutenegger / Jorge Macchi, Teresa Margolles / Fabian...Read more -
Fabian Marti
Ape, Mom, IGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich
24 Mar - 19 May 2007They reflect the artist’s fascination not only for savage theories, but also for underground culture, music and technological debates. He shows us the world seen through his eyes and portrays...Read more
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