Armin Dietrich

Armin Dietrich is a Berlin-based painter working at the intersection of abstraction and figuration. After twenty years as an editorial and advertising photographer, he left the medium in 2020 when increasing digitalization stripped away his creative control. The last five years have been a period of radical experimentation, leading him to his current practice: spray gun, oil paint, and direct work with his hands.

His process begins with preparing the canvas like an urban surface — building up layers, wounds, and patina over several days, guided by the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi. He then applies oil paint with a spray gun, working primarily with his hands, creating paintings that develop over months through a non-linear process of layering, waiting, forgetting, and rediscovering.

His work explores the layered histories of urban environments, drawing inspiration from weathered facades, graffiti paint-overs, and the constant flux of city life. He approaches painting with a distinctly anti-nostalgic stance, rejecting sentimentality for the energy of transformation and change. His palette comes from the city: concrete grey, ochre, rust, weathered facade tones.

His formal references are Arshile Gorky's organic abstraction and the CoBrA painters, particularly Karel Appel — gesture, energy, and movement over symbol and narrative.

His earlier photographic practice explored the boundaries between photography and painting through series including UNCLAD (2017), GODS and MONSTERS (2018), and TRACES OF RITUALS (2019), shown in galleries across Germany.

Dietrich's current work reflects his conviction that painting must resist quick consumption — creating works that oscillate between figuration and abstraction, demanding time and repeated looking.

Dietrich lives and works in Berlin.