Thomas Sommer

Painting, collage, graphics and assemblage – Sommer masters the balancing act between high standards and accessibility.
The elaborate segments of landscapes are characterized by the longing for a perfect picture. Other works portray images with overburdening quotations and abundance of design elements. The collections of different pieces produce a dynamic chaos of Bockwurst and Batman, angels and ice-cream cones. The erratic accumulation of things also symbolizes the objects of an ideal world presented through different techniques, forms and colours on canvas. The work reflects the authentic happenings in our present time, which in a broad sense relates to the longing for order and distance.
In his work „Triumph der Mineure“, Sommer paints clearly defined, deep and colourful landscapes and horizons, where the Olympian people are subjected to oversize elements of the earth. The narrative in the works produced on wide canvases tells us a story about the wondering creatures.
The large series of cloud paintings also resemble the recent works of art, through the concrete appearance of the nature. However, they are equally fictional developments on canvas as they are created through pure imagination. Like miniature versions of the pre-renaissance and monastery painting, the barren landscapes are stylized and enhanced in terms of their colour and structure. Under the great sky and wide landscapes, the figure is tiny and subdued. The proportions, massive landscape formations and the colouring of the turbulent sky express a resonating and ominous element in the work.
Sommer's drawings are created using a combination of wall and facade paints, lacquer, pen, and ink. Which are then scratched, drawn and glued to offset printing plates. The basis of the printing plates relates to motifs seen in earlier works from a catalog production. Here, it can be experienced as counter-work against one's own through its friction and self-inquiry that is constantly revising and updating itself.

Sommer has used artistic recycling as the principle objective for his object boxes. Drawings are transformed into three-dimensional forms that measure 30 x 64.5 x 15cm; they are glazed, oak-wooded corner boxes that are archive numbered and represented in 50 unique assemblages.
What happens in these miniature cabinets is the imitation of contrasting perceptions. The world is divided in to separate components that are reassembled and placed. The first set of boxes follow the simple principles of display as much as possible. Whereas, in the earlier boxes the arrangements were much more controlled. Now the figurative elements of painterly, graphic details are combined with paper and transparent materials that are folded, layered and interlocked. The path leads the viewer from the representational presentation of the work into the deep multi-surfaced space.