Toby Ziegler (B. 1972)

In a constant fluctuation between abstraction and figuration, British painter and sculptor Toby Ziegler uses computer technology to manipulate found images before recontextualising them within the vistas of multi-layered flat pattern. Found in art books and online, Ziegler’s source material ranges from clouds to nineteenth-century landscape painting. In …The grave is an altar…, the glimmer of a Romantic mountainous range is framed by a vortexed rocky overlay, which is fused with Ziegler’s signature dots, created using a computer software that projects the ovals onto a virtual plane. Pictorial space is illusionistically manifested by the interrelationship between these flat layers, and the uneven distribution of the ovals, as mapped-out by the computer software, demonstrates Ziegler’s fascination with chance and irregularity. Whilst taking us on a dreamlike journey through collaged imagery – one that combines synthetic modern textures with a faded memory of Old Master Painting – Ziegler examines the implications of the reproduced image and our inevitable reinterpretations.