Michael Kutsche

Michael Kutsche is an award-winning German artist based in Los Angeles, California. A self taught artist, he works in both traditional and digital media. Through his idiosyncratic approach he remixes seemingly un-mixable stylistic elements of centuries-spanning artistic movements as well as mythical creatures, historical figures and pop culture characters that are reflected in his own ensemble of recurring and highly imaginative “actors”, to create evocative paintings and animations that feel at once like fragments of anachronistic fairy-tales but also raise questions about the human condition and also nostalgia. With an intricate process of digital painting that simultaneously emulates the technique of the old masters as well as more recent abstract approaches he juxtaposes various traditions in image making, forcing us to view past and present from a new angle.

Dead Poets Don’t Cry

Michael Kutsche’s newest work "Dead Poets Don’t Cry" is centered around the multidimensional symbolic nature of the raft, which can either be seen as hope for a new beginning or the vehicle that ferries us to our final destination. The eclectic mix of passengers, who are reminiscent of performers in festive Renaissance attire but who are also symbolic figures that represent the perpetual struggle of the artist, seem to be either stuck in a sort of “digital limbo”, a recurring theme in the artist’s work, or on an adventure towards a greater future.