The Happy Lion is pleased to present the first American solo exhibition by German painter, Christof Mascher (born 1979). The small-scale works on paper and paintings in oil and Indian ink on wood that make up the exhibition offer a singular vision. In Mascher's paintings, ethnic elements are fused with a utopian notion of architecture in the tradition of the Glaserne Kette (The Glass Chain), a chain letter created by an Expressionist group of architects led by Bruno Taut and Wenzel Hablik at the beginning of the 20th century. Dark, fantastical mountain landscapes are populated by crystalline arches, witches' cottages and grotesque figures, yet nevertheless appear profoundly inanimate.

The emphatic simplicity of both painting techniques and image conceptions invites comparisons with Neil Jenney's bad painting and exhibit an intuitive artistic flow like that found in Per Kirkeby's work on masonite from the early 1970's. Although Mascher is not concerned with accuracy of perspective and lifelike reproduction, the painstakingly varnished surfaces of some works woo the onlooker with the resplendent luster of old Master paintings.

Christof Mascher attends Walter Dahn’s class at the Academy of Art in Braunschweig.
He had his first solo show earlier this year at the Michael Janssen Gallery in Cologne and has participated in group shows both there and throughout Europe.