DECONSTRUCTION : RECONSTRUCTION

Matthias Zinn understands painting as a process through which the contemporary world is absorbed and transformed by the medium itself. For him, form does not precede the work but emerges from the dynamic interaction between painter and painting. As Konrad Bitterli (director of Kunstmuseum Winterthur), notes in his essay about the artist: “…it is painting that gives form to things, allowing them to crystallize into condensed, iconic images...”. Zinn describes this process as the creation of a “third reality” – a pictorial and sculptural world of its own that enables a renewed perception of the world we inhabit.

This approach extends consistently into Zinn’s sculptural practice. His sculptures translate his visual language into real space, confronting the viewer directly and expanding ideas that reach their limits in painting. Initially developed from studio remnants in dialogue with his two-dimensional works, the sculptures have increasingly evolved into autonomous objects with their own formal and dynamic presence. Recent projects realize these works in materials such as steel and aluminum.

Zinn works in clearly defined thematic groups, systematically exploring omnipresent motifs such as windows, chairs, heads, or figures. His work emphasizes the artwork as the result of an ongoing exchange between hand and mind. He fully commits to the materiality of his medium: raw surfaces, layered paint, overpainting, scraping, and the construction of sculptural forms remain visibly present. While this physical immediacy may recall the intensity of painters like Francis Bacon, Zinn has developed a distinctive visual language that reactivates the elemental forces of both painting and sculpture. Zinn’s practice thus positions itself confidently beyond debates about the legitimacy of painting and sculpture, focusing instead on a fundamental human need: to connect with the world.

Zinn’s work has been exhibited internationally and his works are held in major collections such as Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, the Crailsheim Collection, Dresden, the Wolkenlos Collection, Munich, and the Collection of Blake Byrne, Los Angeles.

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Matthias Zinn is a berlin based painter and sculptor. He was born in Tegernsee close to Munich. From 1984 to 1986 Zinn studied architecture at the Technical University Lübeck and from 1987 to 1993 he studied painting at Hochschule der Künste (UDK Berlin).

He lives and works in Berlin and Kremmen, (Brandenburg).

/ Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023 FEWO – a dialogue, collaboration with architect Martin Janekovic, Berlin, Germany

2022 Hier, Fürstenwärther Hof, Meisenheim, Germany
Collaboration with Collection Christian Held, Berlin, Germany

2021 Hier, Fürstenwärther Hof, Meisenheim, Germany
Collaboration with Collection Christian Held, Berlin, Germany

2017 Köpfe, Mai 36 Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

2013 Zeichnungen und Collagen, Wolkenlos Collection, Munich, Germany

2011 Mai 36 Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

2009 Mai 36 Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

2007 Kunstparterre, Munich, Germany

2003 Fiebach & Minninger Gallery, Cologne, Germany

2001 Fiebach & Minninger Gallery, Cologne, Germany

2001 Olaf Stüber Gallery, Berlin, Germany

1998 Puttkamer Gallery, Berlin, Germany

/ Selected Group Exhibitions

2025 Was, wenn es gut läuft, (with i.a. Jonathan Meese, Jay Gard, Isabel Kerkermeier, Peter Klare, Katja Strunz, Moritz Frei, Annique Delphine), kuratiert von Alina Mann, Berlin, Germany

2024 Spektrale 11, (with Christian Henkel, Helge Leiberg, Ilka Raupach, Jay Gard, Anna Arnskötter, Tomasz Lewandowski, Andreas Theurer, Susken Rosendahl, Anna Grunemann), kuratiert von Herbert Schirmer, Wildau, Germany

2020 Cambio - das Werk im Wechsel, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
(with i.a. Albert Oehlen, Raoul de Keyser, Per Kirkeby, Hans Josephsohn, Medardo Rosso), St. Gallen, Switzerland

2019 August, Haverkampf Leistenschneider Gallery,
(with Kamilla Bischof, Robert Brambora, Anne Fellner, Daniel Hauptmann, Okka-Esther Hungerbühler, Maximilian Kirmse, Felix Oehmann, Toni Schmale, Lukas Schneider, Stephen Kent), Berlin, Germany

2018 Räume 2, (with various artists), Berlin, Germany

2014 Berlinstudio, The Station, Berlin popup with 5 artists, curated by Matthias Zinn, (with Birgit Dieker, Sebastian Gögel, Paule Hammer, Christoph Musiol), Berlin, Germany

2010 Ambigu - Zeitgenössische Malerei zwischen Abstraktion und Narration, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (with Raoul de Keyser, Mary Heilmann, Pia Fries, Shila Khatami, Rebecca Morris, Xavier Noiret-Thomé, Giacomo Santiago Rogado, Alejandra Seeber, Monique van Genderen), St. Gallen, Switzerland

2010 Mai 36 Gallery, Zurich, Showroom
(with Ian Anüll, Bernard Frize, Jürgen Drescher, Matt Mullican, Christoph Rütimann, Thomas Ruff, Stefan Thiel, Heimo Zobernig), Zurich, Switzerland

2003 Olaf Stüber Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2003 Haus Schneider Gallery, Ettlingen, Germany

2003 Fiebach & Minninger Gallery, Cologne, Germany

2002 Olaf Stüber Gallery, Berlin, Germany

/ Awards / Grants

2023 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, USA

2021 Grant VG-Bild-Kunst, Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG-Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany

2020 Grant Senatsverwaltung Kultur und Europa, Berlin, Germany

/ Works in international collections, selection

Collection of the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland

Wolkenlos Collection, Germany

Collection of Albert Kriemler, Switzerland