Mathis Gasser

Mathis Gasser’s world is made up of motifs and content from science fiction, the performing arts, and horror movies and thrillers, which he uses in his paintings, collages, and installations. Fiction and reality are often interwoven to stimulate the viewer’s imagination. Such is the case with Heroes and Ghosts, an ongoing series of small‑scale oil paintings he began in 2007 and depicting individual characters he draws from films and artworks. Removed from their original narrative context, the characters’ intentions and actions become ambiguous.

His current series of flying and hovering objects reflects his fascination with spaceships. These can be seen as a projection of abstract ideas into this world, potentially expressing something hidden in the collective unconscious. For Gasser, images themselves are vessels that don't only represent but also contain and convey meaning. Their representation is thus, in part, a reflection on the image and painting itself.