Wilhelm Neusser — Spritz3000

Wilhelm Neusser
(b.1976) based in Someville, Massachusetts

Oil on linen
30 × 24 in.; 31 × 25 in. framed

In Heat, an expanse of molten orange sky presses downward, its fiery glow pooling into mirrored marshland. Water channels pull the heat into the earth, while dense green vegetation counters its force. Shifting from atmospheric softness above to crisp marks below, Neusser constructs a landscape of charged contrasts, evoking the aesthetic sensibilities of a world in climatic flux, where beauty and destruction often collide with the same perspective.

Oil on linen
20 × 14 in.

In River: Yellow, a valley glows under an otherworldly yellow-green light, bathing the slopes and waterway in an uncanny radiance. Layers of textured brushwork build from rocky foreground to atmospheric distance, where haze softens the meeting of land and sky. Neusser transforms a familiar river gorge into a dreamlike threshold, evoking both the promise and uncertainty of crossing into the unknown, where light becomes both guide and enigma.

Oil on linen
20 × 16 in.

In Cloud Tower, a surge of incandescent cloud rises above the horizon, its red-hot textures appearing to ignite the surrounding sky. Below, fractured green reflections catch traces of the blaze, as if the land mirrors the atmosphere’s volatility. Neusser channels the grandeur of Romantic landscape painting while confronting the instability of the present, merging awe with unease in a vision that feels both timeless and urgently of our moment.

Oil on linen
20 × 16 in.

Grass, Greener, Other Side pictures a luminous alpine meadow behind the cool geometry of a chain-link fence. Snow-capped peaks and saturated grasslands shimmer with painterly depth, yet the metallic grid interrupts access, transforming what is widely considered beautiful into an image out of reach. Neusser’s juxtaposition of surface and vista invites reflection on longing, control, and the subtle barriers—both material and psychological—that shape our relationships to landscapes we can often see but not experience.

Oil on linen
20 × 16 in.

In Twilight, the last flare of daylight spills across a distant horizon, casting the surrounding mountains into deep shadow. Rich layers of indigo, violet, and crimson shift under a sky pierced by a faint constellation-like streak of luminous blue. Neusser’s brushwork merges solidity and haze, creating a dreamlike transition between terrain and atmosphere. The scene captures twilight’s liminal pull, where fading light invites both reflection and the quiet drama of night’s approach.

Oil on paper / panel
12 × 9 in.; 13 × 10 in. framed

In these works each titled Constellation, Neusser presents three variations on a night sky stretched above pale, rocky terrain, each composition shifting in its balance of earth and cosmos. Echoing Romantic painters who sought the sublime in both terrestrial and celestial realms, these works also recall the 19th century’s expanding astronomical knowledge and speculation about life beyond Earth. The precise starscapes invite slow looking, bridging the painter’s hand with the timeless human impulse to map, imagine, and inhabit the infinite.

Wilhelm Neusser (b. 1976, Cologne, Germany) is a painter whose atmospheric landscapes draw on the legacy of German Romanticism while reframing its ideals through the lens of 21st-century environmental precarity. His works often juxtapose the sublime and the unsettling, depicting verdant hills, craggy peaks, or luminous skies that reveal subtle signs of human intervention and climate change. Neusser’s painterly approach merges careful observation with imagined topographies, resulting in compositions that hover between memory, history, and speculation. He has exhibited widely in the United States and Germany, with solo exhibitions at the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, Galerie Knecht und Burster, Karlsruhe, and Kunstverein Koelnberg, among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at venues such as the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and MASS MoCA, North Adams. Neusser studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe and was also a guest student in art history and theory at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, before relocating to the United States in 2011. He lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.