(German, b. 1980) Thilo Westermann is a contemporary artist who works in drawing, reverse glass painting, print, and photomontage. The main foci of his artistic oeuvre are the exploration of the elemental nature of objects, a critical examination of socio-political narratives, and the process of image creation itself.
The genre of still-life painting serves as a basis for Westermann’s meditations on past and present cultural exchange and appropriation. Botanical recognition together with the pedigree of certain plants and the provenance of the selected vases are central to the cultural interplay and essence of Westermann’s images.
With microscopic precision, Westermann meticulously crafts his motifs in colored pencil drawings or reverse glass paintings. In his reverse glass paintings, Westermann first coats the glass pane with a thin layer of black paint. He then uses a needle to etch the image dot by dot. Finally, Westermann seals the image with a layer of white paint. Seen from the front through the glass pane, the etched dots merge into gray shades creating a three-dimensional motif. His high level of detail elevates the image to the hyperreal, breaking through the boundaries of mere representation.
