Mario Wagner uses images from magazines from the 50s to the 70s, the visual fragments of which seem alienated and taken from a peculiar distance in terms of time. Robbed of its original context, current and historical interpretations made by the viewer overlap. Pictures of the Cold War evoke a diffuse danger of terror, science fiction pictures bring to mind manned space stations, the private home and the high-rise estate suggest urban renewal.

The perspective is disrupted in almost all the works. A number of pictorial spaces here resemble extensive landscapes, other ones recall cramped interiors. The black-and-white material is reinforced by a cool white, and contrasted with vivid colours. The sublime stands next to the banal, the allegorical next to elements of pop culture.

Mario Wagner studied in Aachen and works today as an artist and illustrator in San Francisco/USA. His unmistakeable illustrations are commissioned by popular magazines such as Playboy or the New York Times Magazine. Wagner also works in analogue form in his free works that are up to 2 metres in size, with old magazines, scissors, glue and acrylic paint. His collages have already been shown at various german and international exhibitions.