Ati Maier: The World Is My Oyster

Page 1

Ati Maier The World

Is My Oyster

March 3 - April 3, 2023

"I start with 3-15 overlapping sketches with which I create multiple layers suggesting the possibility of a novel compositional architecture. For example, I might begin with an abstract grid, add a galactic structure, then landscapes on top. It is in this time-consuming period that shapes begin to form and subside, subdivide and cut through and across one another. I weave the layers of space together in such a way that foreground, middle ground and background along with past, present and future become one dense coherence. Through my process the painting is like an organically growing puzzle coming together. The final image can never be predicted, as it is a direct result of the physical and the mental space I am in when I make the work.

I act as a sampler (as in music) of the abundant information available. Scientific theories, technological and geological models, maps, digital and satellite views, as well as NASA websites, books and magazines form the catalyst and interior armature for all of my work.

The vast open landscape and the big sky of the American West became an obsession as I was riding through it on horseback. I am an explorer, using geographical structures, rock formations, unique earth faults, weather phenomena etc. as visual and conceptual sources. Although my work is largely abstract, it is very much about making invisible energies and wavelengths visible.

Recently, I also began working with 3-D animated videos derived from my drawings. I basically rebuild the drawings into a 3D model, making them move through time as well as space. In the animations, as well as my 2-D works, I aim to suggest new visual metaphors for our experience in non-linear, virtual spatial systems."

Ati Maier working on a print at LANDFALL press, Santa Fe, 2017

Indicative of the playful nature of Maier’s work in general, the axiomatic phrase “The world is my oyster” invites the viewer to experience a universe spawned of ink, wood stain and pigments, but which also looks entirely convincing as a snapshot of deep space.

This aesthetic world made of lines, shapes, and fields of color became Maier’s oyster over the course of the last three decades.

All the works between 2019 and 2022 were created at the Apache Creek Ranch next to the Santa Fe State Park, where Maier lived and worked in a retreat-like environment, developing a strong spiritual connection to the mountains and pristine lands surrounding her.

Originally born in Munich (Germany), the artist visited the American West for the first time in her twenties, quickly integrating its rugged topography and otherworldly atmosphere into her visual ecosystem. She eventually moved to New York City and continued to make frequent visits to the West where over time her work moved beyond expressionistic landscapes and into fractured geographies generated through a mix of observation, automatism, and action painting technique.

Ati Maier is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, photography, 3-D video animation, installation, performance, and live action video. She was born in Munich, Germany in 1962 and has studied, lived and worked in Vienna, Berlin and New York City.

Maier’s 3D video animation was included in the Fokus Bienial in Lódz, Poland and her paintings are part of the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) and the Museum der bildenden Kuenste Leipzig (Germany), amongst others. She is a recipient of the Pollack-Krasner Foundation grant and a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant.

Maier's work has been featured in exhibitions at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg (Germany) and “Remote Viewing” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work is included in numerous public collections, including the New Mexico Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, New York; Parrish Art Museum, Montauk, NY; Aspen Art Collection; MART, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rovereto and Trentino, Italy; Staedtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany; Museum der bildenden Kuenste Leipzig, Bergmeier Collection, Germany; BAM Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Guilin Art Museum, Guilin, Guangxi, P.R. China.

She currently lives in Brooklyn and New Mexico.

Oyster World 2020

Ink, pigment and wood stain on paper

55 x 55 inches

Daybreak Star 2020 Ink, wood stain and pigment on paper 23 x 33.5 inches 27.25 x 37.25 inches framed

Inner Planets

2016

Ink and wood stain on paper

24 x 24.5 inches

27.625 x 27.625 inches framed

Cosmic Device

2018

Ink and wood stain on paper

24 x 24.5 inches

27.625 x 27 .625 inches framed

Black Moon 2016

Ink and wood stain on paper

24.25 x 24.25 inches

27.625 x 27.625 inches framed

2020

Ink and wood stain on paper

24 x 34 inches

27.75 x 38.75 inches framed

Penumbral Eclipse

Three Moons

2018

Ink and wood stain on paper

10 x 23.75 inches

14.75 x 27.75 inches framed

Quiet Stars

2020

Ink, wood stain on paper

7 x 7 inches

11 x 11 inches framed

Fires In Space

2020

Ink, wood stain on paper

7 x 7 inches

11 x 11 inches framed

Worlds In Collision

2022

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

10.25 x 24 inches

13.75 x 27.375 inches framed

Twin Stars

2017

Ink and wood stain on paper

15.5 x 15.5 inches

18.75 x 18.75 inches framed

Free Floating Planets

2016

Ink and wood stain on paper

24 x 24 inches

27.5 x 27.5 inches framed

53 x 94.5 inches
Les Univers 2016 Ink and wood
inches
Univers Paralleles wood stain on paper

No Longer On The Map III

2022

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.5 x 13.875 inches framed

Star

2017

Axis II

Ink, wood stain on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.25 x 14.25 inches framed

First Morning 2022

Ink, wood stain on paper

7 x 7 inches

11 x 11 inches framed

Star Spangled

2016

Ink and wood stain on paper

23.75 x 10.75 inches

27.25 x 14.25 inches framed

Time Slings I

2020

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.5 x 13.875 inches framed

Passarim

2020

Ink, wood stain on paper

7 x 7 inches

11 x 11 inches framed

53 x 94 inches
Gateway 2020 Ink, pigment
pigment
inches
and wood stain on paper

Yellowstone I

2022

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.5 x 13.875 inches framed

Evening

2022

Star II

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.5 x 13.875 inches framed

Three Times Over 2018

Ink and wood stain on paper 23.75 x 10.5 inches 27.75 x 14.75 inches framed

Time Slings II

2022

Ink, wood stain, pigments, acrylic on paper

24 x 10.25 inches

27.5 x 13.875 inches framed

Coyote Nebula 2020

Ink, pigment and wood stain on paper

55 x 55 inches

Savvy 2010 Airbrush, ink 53 x 94.5 inches
ink on paper inches

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