Matei R. Mai joins nico bernath
Artist’s portrait by Natália Evelyn Benčičová
We are pleased to announce the representation of Matei R. Mai.
Matei R. Mai (b. 2001, Košice, Slovakia) builds monochromatic paintings from found photographs and archival material, layering glaze and airbrush to mimic the look of digital decay. His approach draws on Hito Steyerl's idea of the "poor image," treating the human face as data that has been copied, compressed, and passed through technological systems. Instead of painting a face as a whole, closed form, he assembles it gradually, point by point, so the figure surfaces only after the fact, much like an image resolving out of digital fragments. He draws on psychiatric records, medical scans, and other institutional archives, materials that already carry the wear of circulation and read less as portraits than as damaged visual information. Through taping, scraping, sealing, and repeated layering, he rebuilds these traces by analogue means.
selected works
Steel structures extend the paintings outward, acting as frames that push the image into physical space while nodding to systems of storage, classification, and containment. Combining degraded imagery with industrial construction and material experimentation, R. Mai's work considers how unstable the human subject has become within today's systems of representation.
R. Mai has presented work in exhibitions including Kárhozat (Damnation) at the kunsthalle c/o VUNU, Košice; Act or Adapt at nico bernath, Bratislava; When You Look Back, You Are There at Lučenec Synagogue; and After Us: An Imprint of Digital Matter at Mikoviniho dom, Banská Štiavnica.
Our first comprehensive collaboration with the artist will be a solo presentation at Astoria Art Show, Vienna, September 10—13.
Matei R. Mai, F02S01, 2026, ink and acrylic on canvas, 80×60 cm
artist's instagram
@atem.mai