Michael Werner

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Florian Krewer: light the ocean, an exhibition of new paintings by German-born, Bronx-based artist Florian Krewer. With the New York night as his muse, Krewer paints all the vastness, liberation, and uncertainty it has to offer. Derived from lived experiences and fantasy, the artist creates a seductive world of drag queens, sex scenes, and magical encounters set against the staged backdrops of imagined landscapes and interiors. Primal needs, longing, and precarious interactions are transmitted to the canvas with the greater intention of revealing our collective vulnerabilities. Florian Krewer (born in Gerolstein, Germany in 1986) studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Solo exhibitions include Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; ride or fly, Michael Werner Gallery, London; Eyes on Fire, Michael Werner Gallery, New York and Tramps, New York; Car Park Godiva, Michael Werner Gallery, London; and pinkflavor, Tramps, New York. The artist is a recent recipient of the Prix Jean-François Prat awarded by the Bredin Prat Foundation and the subject of the solo exhibition everybody rise opening May 2023 at the Aspen Art Museum and then traveling to M WOODS Museum in Beijing. Florian Krewer: light the ocean opens to the public on Friday 5 May with an opening reception on Thursday 4 May from 6 to 8pm and will remain on view through Saturday 17 June. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Michael Werner Gallery, London is pleased to present Maki Na Kamura, an exhibition of new paintings by Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist Maki Na Kamura. Given her background, many critics highlight the competing polarities of Japanese and Western influences in her paintings, but the reality is more complex. Japanese art has long informed European painting. Na Kamura elaborates, “Hokusai compensated for his lack of knowledge of perspective with his pictorial inventions. Sesshu built his pictorial space into the painting. Had Cézanne known about this, he would have been spared his labours.” Furthermore, Na Kamura does not categorize. She sees her work as both figurative and abstract and that these styles, often thought of as distinct, developed in tandem throughout the history of art. Dichotomies do not exist to Na Kamura, and style and time are fluid. Seeing herself “as both a traditionalist and as a painter of the twenty-first century”, for the new works on view, the artist pulls structure from as diverse sources as the paintings by Italian Renaissance master Luca Signorelli and the choreographed gestures of contemporary K-pop dancers. She is communicating with the art of the past and with the viewer in the present: “As long as I produce pictures that are seen, they remain communicative. They’re open.” Maki Na Kamura (b. Osaka) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Europe and in Japan. Solo museum exhibitions have been held at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium (2017); Osthaus Museum Hagen in Hagen, Germany (2017); Bilbao Arte – centro de arte contemporáneo in Bilbao, Spain (2015); and Oldenburger Kunstverein in Oldenberg, Germany (2014). Na Kamura was awarded the Falkenrot Prize in 2013. Her work is in the collection of Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. Na Kamura lives and works in Berlin. Maki Na Kamura opens on 21 April with a private view on 20 April from 6-8pm and will remain on view through 4 June. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-colour catalogue with a text by Travis Jeppesen.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Markus Lüpertz: Et in Arcadia ego, an exhibition of recent paintings by the eminent German artist Markus Lüpertz. The exhibition shows the artist at his best, forging a future for his work by invoking the past and reimagining it in the present. Et in Arcadia ego is a Latin phrase that has intrigued classicists, artists, and poets since it was introduced in the 17th century, first in a painting by Giovanni Francesco Guercino and subsequently in two paintings by Nicolas Poussin. The widely accepted translation is “Even in Arcadia, there I (Death) am.” Bringing the ethos of Guercino and Poussin into the present-day, Lüpertz paints the idyllic, mythical utopia of Arcadia in the bucolic landscape of Brandenburg, Germany, where the artist keeps his studio. In tranquil and lush settings, death is present through the inclusion of skulls, the Greek underworld rivers of Acheron and Styx, and sleeping figures culled from the paintings of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Art historian Eric Darragon has written that “the art world is fragmented and the confrontation between various practices no longer has any meaning,” and because of this Lüpertz “is having a dialogue with a vanished world: that of old painting.” In these recent works, Lüpertz’s own history collides with art history. The artist’s famous looping dithyrambs, apparent in painter’s palettes and Nazi helmets from his provocative German motif series, take shape in memento mori paintings and traditional German landscapes. Lüpertz has said, “Painting confronts the future, which we don’t know, and is aware of the past, which we do know, and this defines the present—not something new, but something individual.” Markus Lüpertz: Et in Arcadia ego presents Lüpertz’s singular vision and remarkable contemporary interpretation of the cycle of beauty, loss, and death in Arcadia. Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941, Liberec, Bohemia) is one of the most important and influential artists to emerge from post-war Germany. In recent years, major surveys have been presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; The Hermitage State Museum, St. Petersburg, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art; and Palazzo Loredan, Venice.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Antonius Höckelmann / Arnulf Rainer, an exhibition of over 70 works by German artist Antonius Höckelmann (1937-2000) and Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer (b. 1929). Featuring a wide array of media, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, photography, and prints, the exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see the works of Höckelmann and Rainer side by side. Working simultaneously from different countries, both artists explored themes of creation and destruction in post-war Europe. Born in Oelde, Germany in 1937, Antonius Höckelmann trained as a wood sculptor in his hometown in the 1950s before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Höckelmann said, “For me, sculpture is at the root of everything”, which is contradictory to the fact that he completed no more than a dozen sculptures in his lifetime, destroying many. Concerned with the way 3-dimensional works interacted with space, Höckelmann ultimately found sculpture to exist in “an artificial world that relies only upon itself.” Drawing also naturally exists in a realm of its own and became an integral part of Höckelmann’s exploration of form. Art historian Julia Garimorth writes of this development: “Though physical contact with material is an imperative for all sculptors, Höckelmann realized that the simple evocation of this material often proved to be more ‘effective’ than working the material itself. He thus experimented with drawing to replace touch by the evocation of touch.” Born in Baden, Austria in 1929, Arnulf Rainer began his first experiments in overpainting at the same time Höckelmann created his first sculptures. Rainer initially started overpainting out of financial necessity but soon found it to be an important catalyst in his creative process. Works were created over a long period of time and in dialogue with the underlying source material that was often completely obliterated. Rainer never saw his work as complete. A pioneer of the Art Informel movement, Rainer describes the movement, “a state in which all was possible and nothing yet pronounced...a pure state of possibility.” It was possibility that excited him as an artist and the resulting impossibility that tormented him. Plagued by doubt, Rainer turned towards rudimentary forms of communication and expression and, like Höckelmann, a tactual method, wherein he used his own body to paint on canvas. Höckelmann had his first solo exhibition with Michael Werner Gallery in 1966. Afterwards, he exhibited in prominent museums including Kunsthalle Bern (1975), Kunsthalle Köln (1980), the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf (1985), and the Hamburger Kunstverein (1986) as well as documenta 6 (1977) and documenta 7 (1982). An exhibition of his work titled “Antonius Höckelmann: All in All” was recently exhibited at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2020) and Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (2020-2021). Arnulf Rainer began exhibiting with the Michael Werner Gallery in the 1960s. He represented Austria at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and exhibited at documenta 5 (1972), documenta 6 (1977), and documenta 7 (1982). Major retrospectives of his work have been mounted at Centre Pompidou in Paris (1984), The Guggenheim in New York (1989), the Stedelijk in Amsterdam (2000), and Kunstforum Vienna (2000). He is the winner of the Austrian National Prize in Graphic Arts (1966) and Painting (1978). A museum dedicated to Rainer’s work opened as part of the Ayn Foundation in New York from 1993 to 1995. Another museum of his work opened in his hometown of Baden, Austria in 2009. Recently, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, the Vienna Albertina hosted an exhibition titled Arnulf Rainer: A Tribute to honor the artist’s career (2019-2020). Antonius Höckelmann / Arnulf Rainer opens Wednesday 23 November 2022 at Michael Werner Gallery, New York and will remain on view through Saturday 28 January 2023.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Issy Wood: Time Sensitive, an exhibition of new paintings by American-born, British artist and musician Issy Wood (b. 1993).

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Danish artist Per Kirkeby (1938-2018). Taking the form of a small retrospective, the show focuses on the artist’s lifelong engagement with landscape, geology, and the natural world.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Francis Picabia – Women: Works on Paper 1902-1950, an exhibition of over 40 works on paper spanning 50 years of the iconoclastic French artist’s career.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by French artist Eugène Leroy (1910-2000). Living most of his life in Tourcoing, France, near the Belgian border, Leroy painted classical subjects such as still-lifes, self-portraits, and the human figure. He drew inspiration from the history of painting, particularly from the work of masters such as Giorgione, Rembrandt, and Hugo van der Goes. Laboring over his paintings for many years, Leroy built layers upon layers of paint until the subjects are obfuscated and only recognizable through painted glints of light. On view in the exhibition are paintings of Leroy’s muse and lover, Marina Bourdoncle, an artist Leroy met in 1986 and with whom he shared the remainder of his life until 2000. Painting from life was a necessity for Leroy. Never static, Bourdoncle posed for him reading Joyce, Rimbaud, and Proust, as well as playing the guitar or flute. While the nude figure, particularly female and often Marina, was a recurring theme in Leroy’s painting, the subject only served him as a vehicle to capture the movement of light. As the critic Barry Schwabsky has written, “his paintings show no concern with either the flesh or its form but only with what might be called a flash of illumination in which both flesh and form are at once dissolved and memorialized.” Works by Leroy are in major American and European collections and have been exhibited at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris; Stedlijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; and Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, Nice. He took part in documenta IX in Kassel in 1992 and in the Venice Biennale in 1995. The Musée Beaux Arts Tourcoing was renamed MUba Eugène Leroy in honor of the painter in 2010. Eugène Leroy: About Marina opens 11 November at Michael Werner Gallery in New York. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Social distancing is in effect and wearing a mask is mandatory. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Per Kirkeby: Overpaintings, an exhibition of übermalungen, or overpaintings, by the late Danish artist Per Kirkeby (b. 1938, d. 2018). An accomplished painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Kirkeby’s career spanned over six decades, making him one of the most influential and versatile artists of his generation.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Markus Lüpertz. Featuring paintings made over the last four years in Italy and Germany, the artist masterfully combines Southern and Northern European painting traditions while creating work that is new, innovative and contemporary.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present James Lee Byars: The Milky Way. The exhibition will feature Byars’s most ambitious two-dimensional work. Composed of 100 black silk paper stars, The Milky Way will envelop the gallery. This exhibition marks the first time the work has been exhibited.

Michael Werner Gallery and TRAMPS present Eyes on Fire, an exhibition of recent paintings by Florian Krewer. Krewer’s new paintings are feverish dreamscapes. Larger than life figures, carried by owls and communing with big cats, wander and brawl at night through empty city streets. Ambiguous, intimate, interior scenes are revealed in the moment as if suddenly illuminated by artificial light. The paintings are intensely personal. Objects, figures and scenes are borne from experience, obsession, fantasy and desire. The artist carries us into his world, providing an alternative way of viewing the one we share. Krewer (born in Gerolstein, Germany in 1986) studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Solo exhibitions include boogie nights, Tom Dick or Harry, Düsseldorf; pinkflavor, TRAMPS, New York; and Car Park Godiva, Michael Werner Gallery, London. Krewer currently lives and works in New York. Eyes on Fire will be on view in two locations, Michael Werner Gallery (4 East 77th Street) and TRAMPS (75 East Broadway, 2nd Floor), starting Thursday, 19 November 2020. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with text by Yair Oelbaum.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Peter Saul: Murder in the Kitchen, Early Works, featuring paintings and works on paper from 1959 to 1966. The exhibition charts the artist's development as he emerges as one of the most original voices in 20th century American painting.

Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present Parapliers the Willow Dipped, Paintings 1967-1997, an exhibition of works by Don Van Vliet. Selected by artist Spencer Sweeney, this is the first New York exhibition of Van Vliet’s paintings in more than a decade.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of works on paper and brick sculptures by Danish artist Per Kirkeby. This is the first time many of these sculptures have been shown since their first exhibition in Europe in the mid-1970s.