DAVID UESSEM

David Uessem is a German artist known for his very particular skill in the technique of realistic portraiture. He studied illustration, painting and graphic. After completing his free painting studies at IBKK Bochum, joining the master class of Prof. Dr. Qi Yang, he started his career specializing and refining his art more and more. It was Prof. Yang who inspired him to create a formal language that derives its core dynamic from opposition. The German artist with his personal and highly distinctive style emanates a buoyant aesthetic. All the possible declinations of our emotions become the different and inescapable facets of human existence at the core of his work. Feelings such as insecurity, fear, vulnerability, but also pride, strength and interpersonal relationships are the protagonists of David’s art scene. His subjects with covered faces share the scene with shiny foils and sequins which, in full contrast with the subject whose gaze is turned off, shine and give light to the work. Some are even adorned with equally compelling elements as disco balls, or dressed in astronaut gear and covered in flower helmets. The masked protagonists of Uessem create an interplay of surreal visual worlds that blur reality and illusion. His large size paintings are exceptionally unique.  Mixing acrylic and oil techniques in his artworks, he creates meticulously detailed paintings that look like a high-resolution photographs. His subjects look as though they are about to step out of his large-scale canvases and become a part of the real world. The artist has developed his distinctive Uessem style – an unmistakable mix of hyper-realistic depiction and surreal pictorial composition. Again and again we experience the captivating and irritating combination of human portraits and their partly masking. Natural skin meets another, artificial material. A shiny foil that wraps around half the face with drapes, or shimmering gold, sparkling jewels or bouquets of flowers, in the form of a crown or pop culture motifs such as Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. David Uessem uses these elements like recurring requisites that apply to his paintings and sculptures. The approach to the genre of sculpture once again illustrates David Uessem’s curiosity, dedication and also the conscious exploration of medial and material boundaries.[/vc_column_text]