Artist Statement
Jakob Scheidt (born 2002 in Schwäbisch Gmünd) lives and works in Hamburg, Germany. In the depiction of complex scenes, he processes the human being and the human figure in the spectrum between figuration and abstraction in mostly large-format paintings. The pictures are characterized by the juxtaposition of painterly extremes - an approach that alternates between intention and chance serves as the basis for the development of the composition. Gestural, expressive structures emerge, some of which seem to become darkly condensed and knotted. The resulting arrangements of wandering figures seem to emerge from the tangled background structures and come to the surface through the use of light tones. In the process, there is a constant alternation between deconstruction and reconstruction, the blurred motifs serve in their remnants as impulses for new formal inventions.Jakob Scheidt operates with diverse art-historical and literary references and attempts to deal with contemporary questions concerning collective guilt and historical responsibility through painting. A wide variety of sources serve as inspiration; the intuitive assembly of memories and photo fragments from news reports or archives gives rise to suggestive scenes whose protagonists are consciously withdrawn from any clear placement in a narrative. Appearing to wander between a dream world and fading memories, sometimes in isolation, sometimes merging into a group, a morbid and ephemeral mood emerges that seems to emanate directly from the fragmented chaos in which the figures are woven.
