Gerhard Bissell

Gerhard is a photo artist with a profound background in art historical research. After exploring a variety of subject matters and styles, with his current series Landmarking, he concentrates on interpreting architecture and other subjects as embedded in an ornamental context created out of the surrounding situation. The isolated main motif is removed from its urban reality, either monumentalised or interwoven in a pattern. The mixture of abstract and figurative components is key to the surreal qualities and the object character of the manipulated photograph. The beholder’s eye jumps between recognisable elements and the ornamental system of mostly geometrical shapes and colours. For this series, his influences range from Minimalism to Pop and Op Art to the decorative systems of Renaissance and Baroque churches and palaces.