In the fifth solo exhibition by Magnus Plessen, we are delighted to present a group of new oil paintings and collages. This is the first exhibition by the artist since completing his 1914 series, on which he had been working for four years from 2014 to 2018.
Magnus Plessen creates works that combine diverse painterly methods and approaches to reality (systems of representation) within an image. The limbs of the figures are generally outlined fragmentarily, while the hands are freely sketched and placed within an otherwise undeveloped plane in a way reminiscent of a sculptor’s preparatory or volumetric sketch. Other elements approximate reality, whereby the artist attempts to achieve what amounts to the impossible in the medium of painting, namely an imprint of the real. Still other areas are painted with free brushstrokes. What most of these painterly methods have in common is that the paint is partially removed and taken back by being scraped with a palette knife, wiped with a cloth, removed with sticky tape or rubbed with printing paper.
Magnus Plessen, born in Hamburg in 1967, now lives and works in Berlin. He is professor for Painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe and exhibits worldwide in galleries and museums, most recently at the Rose Art Museum in Boston, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen. Mai 36 Galerie has represented the artist since 2003.
7 June - 3 August 2019
Artist Reception: Sunday, 9 June 2019, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Zurich Art Weekend 2019: Friday 7 June, 12 noon – 7 p.m., Saturday 8 June 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Sunday 9 June 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.