Stefan Saalfeld

Stefan Saalfeld is fascinated by the synthesis of drawing, painting and generative software art. He combines digital techniques with many years of painting experience to produce a vibrant stream of images. Using the computer, he generates compositions of dense colour lines that overlap, or run alongside one another. Refined breaks in the horizontal lines appear like digital sound waves with stop and search systems. Some works comprise up to forty individual layers. Mythical creatures and figures jump between these layers like chimeras between pop art and post modernism that might have just come out of from a time machine.

As a clever final touch, Saalfeld adds something otherwise lacking in digital images: a patina, grunge, the wear and tear of life. The otherwise sterile and blemish-free works are given a vintage look, lending them romance and honesty. The artist achieves this authenticity by overlaying different elements, texts and patterns, in multiple levels. What emerges is a digital painting that far exceeds the boundaries of analogue imagery and amazes us with its remarkable detail. It is this combination of technological elements and organic shapes that makes Saalfeld’s images such exciting discoveries.

Christina Wendenburg