Perhaps best known for his impressive trompe l’oeil techniques, artist Jochen Mühlenbrink, based between Germany and the Netherlands, describes his latest series as “a philosophical approach to painting.” By achieving seemingly natural optic effects with paint, he investigates the ambiguity of reality. Seamlessly rendered, his fogged windows are both a celebration of painterly illusion and dystopian iconoclasm. The paintings create a tension between perception and expectation, upsetting our conception of reality: “we see an illusion, but we are simultaneously convinced by the power and autonomy of pure paint.”

See more from Jochen Mühlenbrink below!