Untitled #107

German artist Gerhard Mayer creates drawings with drafting pens and elliptical stencils, along with a set of seven parameters he imposes upon himself. These include that he only use one stencil per drawing and that the resulting lines don’t intersect one another. The number seven also defines other aspects of the work. For example, he tends to draw on sheets of paper that measure 34.3 x 43.4 cm—a very particular size that is not readily available commercially (the sum of course is 77.7). He became drawn to this number through its frequent reoccurrence in fairy tales, the Bible, mathematics, and biology. Even under these strictures, the resulting drawings are incredibly diverse and feel spontaneous. Mayer compares their aesthetic to computer graphics or video games.