Mathias Lanfer

(Germany) *1961 in Südlohn/Westphalia

Lanfer studied painting and sculpture at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts. In 1991 he became a pupil of Tony Cragg. From 1995 to 1997, he taught sculpture at the same school. In the works of Mathias Lanfer, the formal innovations in sculpture are clearly to be seen. At first, he constructs his welded and synthetic-coated steel modules on a computer screen. The production process is carried out by car-industry suppliers who shape the metal parts using robots. In his studio, Lanfer welds the modules together into skeletons, after which he repeatedly dips them in plastic. Transparent capsules form the protective outer skin. Using different energy forms, the production processes leave no trace of manual workmanship. In consequence the sculptures move the observer sensually as well as poetically by their perfect artificiality, which makes the sculptures – so pure and so indeterminable – appear like the plastic embodiments of utopias.