JOCHEN HEIN
(b. 1960, Germany)

Jochen Hein lives and works in Hamburg.

The choice of motifs for his paintings seems very familiar to the beholder: the sea, lakes, parks, mountains and the sky. In depicting these subjects, however, Jochen Hein plays with the illusion resulting from the divergence between close and far. While his works appear detailed and realistic when viewed from a distance, they dissolve into abstract structures when approached. The surfaces of his paintings appear as enigmatic as the surfaces of the world they depict. Their precision and brilliance bring to mind the German romantics, their atmospheric density evokes the essence of a moment. Some of his paintings are scarcely larger than a book, others cover a whole wall in the museum. Whatever their size, Hein’s paintings reveal the power, vastness and mysteriousness of nature.

Recent exhibitions include the Museum Kunst der Westküste (2020), Museum Bensheim ( 2019 ) and the Kunstverein Münsterland ( 2018 ) as well as the exhibition “Über die Tiefe” at the Museum Kunst der Westküste in Föhr ( 2016 ), the Städtische Galerie Neunkirchen ( 2017 ), and the Hamburg Museum (2015). In February 2020, Hatje Cantz Verlag published the artist’s monograph: Jochen Hein – Reflexion.

“Man’s wish to converse with something nobler than himself initiates my paintings and is the driving force of my work.” – Jochen Hein

Courtesy of the artist and ESTELLA, New Orleans