Nils Schirrmacher’s projects reconsider the schemata of idealized states that found expression in utopian experiments and totalitarian regimes of 19th and 20th centuries.

Ponti’s Corner reconstructs an image from Roberto Papini’s Arts in the 20’s: Architecture and Decorative Arts in Europe. Published in Italy between the wars, this book chronicles “approximate” examples of the fictional utopia, Universa. Claiming that he was unable to publish copyrighted photographs of the city owned by the government, Papini resorted to photographs from the studios of Europe's leading designers, whose work was close to achieving Universa's perfection. The deadpan representation of commercial photographs is at odds with the grandiosity of the author’s utopia, revealing his totalitarianism to be the product of an intense longing. The works from this series are created by composing a single structure within an evolving formal tableau of variants. The selected image of Gio Ponti’s design is processed through a sequence of 2 and 3D media, resulting in photographic illustrations whose dimensionality conform to the painterly space of abstraction. Schirrmacher begins by breaking down the composition of the image into individual elements and renders these components as small-scale models. He then photographs the miniatures and the prints are subsequently segmented, collaged, and hand-retouched to produce the final works. 

Nils Schirrmacher is a Los Angeles artist using scale models, photography, and collage to explore historical responses to the dilemma of consciousness. He received a BFA in Sculpture from California College of the Arts, and an MFA from UC Irvine. Recent exhibitions include "Black Rabbit/White Hole" at Samuel Freeman Gallery.