Gert & Uwe Tobias' (b. 1973, Romania) new multi-dimensional collages on canvas that explore the intersections of painting, drawing, and collage, while rooted in the artists' long-standing mastery of the woodcut technique.

The Tobias-brothers begin their collages with a painterly foundation of woodcut color on canvas, upon which additional elements are built. First, the painted canvas is printed using their self-developed woodcut technique, where poplar plywood pieces are cut, painted, transferred, and layered in a geometric grid. Technically precise drawings are then applied with pencil and colored pencil, depicting outlines of shapes traced from wooden stencils taken directly from the artists' extensive woodcut archive. After a further layer of woodcut printing, fragments of canvas and wood, also sourced from the archive, are painted, accentuated with drawings, and adhered to the canvas surface. While preserving the essence of collage, the incorporation of wooden elements creates a distinct three-dimensionality and enhances the compositions with a relief-like quality.

In the works, the reduced geometric shapes such as circles and arabesques from the artists' repertoire of woodcut stencils are reused and rearranged in unpredictable ways, creating a dynamic interplay between rigor and chance. Simultaneously, the cutting, layering, and overprinting of elements – along with the reuse of archival materials and fragments – evokes the structure and function of sewing patterns, where sections are cut, arranged, and repurposed to form new compositions.