NDCM Froehlich

Nikolaus Dominik Cyril Merlin - N.D.C.M. for short - Fröhlich (*1989) has been making collages from collected and discovered materials since 2011. He was deeply inspired by his two grandfathers, the artists Josef Pillhofer and Rudolf Polanszky, to...

Nikolaus Dominik Cyril Merlin - N.D.C.M. for short - Fröhlich (*1989) has been making collages from collected and discovered materials since 2011. He was deeply inspired by his two grandfathers, the artists Josef Pillhofer and Rudolf Polanszky, to start his artistic journey. They always taught him to go his own artistic way and to create works that clearly position themselves in their unique visual language. When collecting materials for further processing, N.D.C.M. focuses on photographs from around 1900. The chosen motifs reflect his personal interests: secessionist Vienna, historic architecture, fashion magazines from the 1960s and ‘70s, major cities and places around the world that the artist has traveled to, and above all his love of animals. N.D.C.M. Fröhlich - a passionate art collector himself - has experimented with different collage techniques over the years, constantly expanding them and finally developing a unique, distinctive style. His artworks are created exclusively by hand, as the individual pieces he finds must fit together perfectly in their overall composition, both in terms of size and color. The search process can range from months to several years. Each of his works attempts to either describe a feeling, preserve the past, or to tell a story. Depending on the project, N.D.C.M.‘s works are strictly limited editions of motifs, one-of-a-kind series or isolated unique pieces. Each copy is reproduced by the artist himself, cut out and refined with attention to detail, using gold or silver leaf. Given the artist‘s craftsmanship, especially the application of the gold leaf, no two works are exactly alike, even within a single edition of motifs. N.D.C.M.‘s art takes us into another world - it can enchant, fascinate, amuse or even surprise us with its power of meaning. There is only one thing it cannot do: leave us untouched. It is an excursion into a (parallel) world, which tries to unite past, present and future - elegantly packed with a humorous touch and a unique, aesthetic pleasure.