Jost Münster’s paintings and installations in wood, paint and paper experiment with colour and the painted surface, to create a series of works that explore the reaches of representation. Layering materials is a significant method. His work spans and connects painting and sculpture; who push, pull apart, extend, and test the boundaries of what a painting can be. Munster plays with the tension between something that appears weathered and depleted, or conversely entirely full of fresh content.
Working from his urban surroundings, Jost Münster uses shapes from fragments of facades, silhouettes and individual geometric elements. He strips away pictorial detail, flattens and collages surfaces with abstract, mosaic-like colour swatches and backgrounds. Münster, recently begun a process of painting over the top of older works, renewing their surfaces and leaving small traces of what was there before. This accentuates a defining preoccupation – the relationship between foreground and background. He experiments with colour and the painted surface to create a series of works that explore the reaches of representation.
Jost Münster was born in Ulm, Germany. He lives and works in London. He studied Fine Art and Intermediales Gestalten at The Fine Art Academy Stuttgart and received his M.A in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College of Art, London.
Selected solo exhibitions include: Flirt Tricks, 1961Projects, Singapore (2018); Casual Encounter, Stadtgalerie, Saarbrucken, Germany (2017); New Neighbours, Tintype, London (2016); Dopellegänger, Victory Gallery, Portland, US (2012); MARGINI - Arte Contemporanea, Massa, Italy (2011).
Recent selected group exhibitions include: ABSTRACTION VS FIGURATION, Kunstgenerator, bat 43 atelier 18, 1227 Carouge, Geneva; Check Mate! BCMA Berlin, Manteuffelstrasse 42; Carousel, The Koppel Project Centre (2019); Interval [] still : now, Tintype gallery, London; Painting Notes, Art Seen, Nicosia, Cyprus (2018); Whitstable Biennale {} Interval, The Waiting room, Whitstable Railway Station (2016); Unpainting \ / resurfacing, University of Hertfordshire Galleries, Art & Design Gallery, Hatfield (2015); Multiplicities, [art seen], Nicosia (2015); Limber – spatial painting practices, co-curated by Münster & Cherry Smyth, Herbert Read Gallery (2013); Canterbury & Grandes Galleries de L’ESADHaR, Rouen, France, (2013); Crazee Golf, Tintype, London, (2012); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2012); A Sort of Night to the Mind, Artary Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany (2011); Mostyn Open 2011, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales (2011); Polemically Small, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, (2011); Polemically Small (The Future can wait), The Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles (2011); Polemically Small, Garboushian Gallery, Los Angeles (2011); Ground Control, Museum 52, London (2010); Hulahoop, 401contemporary/ London projects, London (2010); John Moores 26, Liverpool Biennial, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2010); Das vertraute Unvertraute, Wuerttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2010); Urban Origami, PM Gallery and House, London (2010); Mexican Blanket, Museum 52, London, (2010).
