Florian Maier-Aichen’s images reinterpret landscape photography for the 21st century. Often shot at obscure angles or from aerial views, his estranged vantage points are both alien and familiar; a sensation enhanced by his subtle manipulation of the images. Conceiving the representation of sites with a sense of dislocation, Maier-Aichen’s work addresses issues of globalisation and virtual perception. In Untitled, Maier-Aichen’s coastline is far from postcard perfect: a virgin beach lined with superhighway and luxury homes expanding into the misty distance. Tinting the surrounding forest in an unnatural shade of red, he casts an apocalyptic glow over the seascape, framing wilderness and human intervention as a scene of science fiction portent.

Florian Maier-Aichen’s exotic scenes are infused with trepidation and uncertainty. Maier-Aichen’s Untitled captures the frequent flyer familiarity – and all the bejewelled spacey awe – of an aerial view of a city at night. Printed in black and white, the contrast of intense lumination against a black abyss is heightened, as millions of pin point lights merge in the molten illusion of flowing lava. Rendering jet-set spectacle with the aura of natural disaster, Maier-Aichen’s cosmopolitan image becomes instantly spellbinding and horrific.Florian Maier-Aichen approaches his medium as a form of painterly illusion. Adopting his process as a means to ‘draw with light’, his photos blur fact and fiction, creating ominous evidence of a rapidly changing planet. Barren of conspicuous landmarks Maier-Aichen’s Untitled is an anonymous anywhere space. The receding grid pattern of lights weighs the composition with a dulled sleepiness, as the horizon seems to encroach in an electric blue haze. Shot from an extreme angle, Maier-Aichen’s landscape verges on the abstract; the unnatural phenomenon reading as subtle shifts of colour and texture, replicating the sublime intensity of colour-field painting.

Florian Aichen-Maier revives an intrigue of technology and metaphysics; the effects of his process reveal ‘unseen truths’ or a sense of mysticism about his represented images. In Untitled, Maier-Aichen’s snow-scape exudes an eerie loneliness, encapsulating the deafening stillness of a winter’s night in its cool blue tint and greeting card romanticism. The unlikely presence of a street lamp amidst the trees gives strange illumination to the falling snow, giving an unsettling suburban presence to the desolate scene.Florian Maier-Aichen presents an aerial view of the popular California tourist destination. Trading on the area’s celebrated 5 million year old geological heritage, Maier-Aichen’s photograph transforms the topography into something strangely primitive. Pin point trees, smooth glaciers, and contoured rock connote a biological animation, carved through with vein-like roads, and infectious microscopic houses. Scrutinised with alien perspective, evidence of development and luxury become etched upon the terrain as crude scratchings as the artificial white outline of ski-slopes attain the brutal elegance of cave painting.

Read Entire Article about USA Artist Florian Maier-Aichen paintings and artwork at The Saatchi-Gallery http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/florian_maier_aichen.htm