Matthias Esch (b. 1988, Andernach, DE) is a painter and video artist. He completed a Master of Visual Arts with Honours at the Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin, in 2016, followed by a Master of Letters from the Glasgow School of Art in 2018. He lives and works in Berlin.
Esch’s work is shaped by a critical relationship to language, order and fixed meaning. Influenced by personal experiences with autism within his family, his practice reflects a deep mistrust of verbal communication and its claim to clarity. His paintings translate this tension into geometric abstraction: precise, system-based compositions in which order is repeatedly unsettled through breaks, shifts and disruptions. Rather than presenting structure as stable, he treats it as emotional and subjective, liable to become fragile under pressure.
Esch has long been active in counterculture and the underground music milieu, references which enter his video works more directly. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. His first monograph, Banality of Structure, was published in 2021. In 2024, he presented his second institutional solo exhibition at Kunstverein Brandenburg, Potsdam.
