Hannes Heinrich (*1989, Königsberg) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Prof. Karin Kneffel and at the Slade School of Fine Arts (UCL), London. The main interest of Hannes Heinrich is to make questions and thought processes visible, whereby the process of painting is not only a tool but also the content of the picture. By superimposing grids of colour spaces and gestures with actual light and shadow, Heinrich takes the illusion of knowing in advance what the finished picture will look like in the end. The thought or the idea of the picture is only completed by the painting and gets a meaning. He thus slows down not only the painting process but also the "process of looking".

The resulting web of colour makes it more difficult for the viewer to dive into imaginary pictorial spaces and brings him or her back to the actual surface of the picture again and again. Heinrich thus investigates in his works the theoretical separation of representation and existence of an object by means of painting. Where is the boundary between being and seeming and how can a painted picture be classified within this framework?

Representation becomes its own existence or surface becomes content and content becomes surface. Questions about the difference between copy and original no longer play a role. Rather, his works seem to be wormholes into a friendly cartoon world full of simulacra and copies, where originals no longer exist and where questions of truth or reality seem irrelevant. These questions initially relate directly to the painted picture, but cannot be separated from a separate concept of world, reality or the perception of it.

Heinrich's works have already been shown at Sotheby's, Munich; Salon der Gegenwart, Hamburg; Display Gallery, London; Museen de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro; and GIG Galerie, among others.