Fabian TreiberGermany

Fabian Treiber (b. 1986, Ludwigsburg, DE) layers up and applies fine glazes using highly pigmented acrylic inks and paste-like masses of paint. The works seem like representations of objects, landscapes or interiors, but the artist’s focus is less on the pure reproduction of reality and rather on recreating his memory thereof and the feeling thus induced—in other words, the transfer of feeling that lies beneath the surface.

Rooms and objects always grow during Treiber’s painting process. The flat-looking composition of the picture, the abandonment of a stringent perspective, and the play with varying proportions that appear to be “wrong” show the depicted as an artistic composition and a recreation of a reality that is not factual.

Nevertheless, by positioning different objects alongside each other and placing them on top of each other, abstract forms become objects with strange functions. Treiber’s painting is concerned with a balancing and shifting of the demarcation line that seems to determine our perception and feeling while at the same time always showing us we are dealing with a painted and thus distinct reality.

Treiber studied Fine Arts at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart (2015) and was a master student in the Weissenhof Program (2016). He was a recipient of the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium in 2018 and was a finalist for the Hans Purrmann Prize in 2021. His work has been exhibited at major institutions including Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2019), Kunstverein Ludwigsburg (2019), and Städtische Galerie Dresden (2023). He has had, among others, solo exhibitions at Museum zu Allerheiligen (2021), Haverkamp Leistenschneider Gallery Berlin (2021), and Anat Ebgi Los Angeles (2024). He also participated in the Biennale Mulhouse 017 in France (2017). Treiber’s work is represented in numerous public collections across Europe and Asia, including Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Olbricht Collection Essen, the MWoods Museum, the X Museum, as well as the Pond Society in Beijing. He lives and works in Stuttgart, Germany.