Down to Earth

Michael Fanta
28.03.26 - 25.04.26

Michael Fanta, Untitled, 2026. 

Spiderwebs on a dusty sign

Dangling feet over a sidewalk passage

A torso cracked open

Investigated

The taste of something foul

These disparate findings make up a visual anthology curated, photographed and rendered in paint both thick and almost translusid by Michael Fanta. Entering into the space of the gallery, this curious assembly of images and textures stares back at us, glowing with subtle neon hues. It feels as though it is trying to tell us something. But what?

A sign tells us it is raining somewhere near the sea or maybe it is already being battered by powerful waves? A sliver of green remains in the frame.

Does it rain underwater?

The images leave clues for the passerby.

A woman rushing down a busy street notices a sign on the ground mimicking her.

Her heels click, click, click on the gritty cobblestone sidewalk.

Looking, really looking at Fanta's work requires a certain softness. His paintings, symbolic in nature, are deliberately simple, almost naive. Objects such as the silky threads of a spider's web or the smooth exterior of an enveloppe almost seem to feel, like they are sensing something, sensing us perhaps, as we speak about them. Yet, these simple compositions leave so much out. They tell us only what we need to know, watching to see if we can guess what lies within.

Waiting for us to piece together what remains out of frame.

Can you read between the slabs of paint?

Is that feeling love or a foreboding taste of poison?

There is meaning under the surface.

Tess Mazuet