André Butzer / Adrian Altintas
Brussels | Allard 25
April 25 – June 8, 2024
Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to announce André Butzer / Adrian Altintas, a two-person presentation at our
Brussels location on Allard 25. The exhibition, approached by two artists with highly distinct but
complementary practices, will be on view from April 25 – June 8, 2024.
For the exhibition, André Butzer has chosen nine small-scale paintings, created throughout the summer of
2022. These paintings—equally tender and brash—retrace the 30 years history of his own oeuvre. Along new emblematic N-Paintings, painted in color for the first time, his iconic characters are present.
A simultaneous co-presence of all times and paintings masterfully unfolds even in such intimate formats. Together they give a glimpse into the future and all there is yet to come. A continuous self-inquiry, in which Butzer insists on basic human dignity, thus delving into societal contradictions and non-conformity. Butzer's recurring figures embody various facets of human history: While the homeless Wanderer seeks a gentle abode of his own amid all-encompassing devastation, the Woman gracefully balances vulnerability with strength, echoing medieval icons and renaissance terracotta medallions of the benevolent Virgin Mary.
Adrian Altintas in turn taps into the present and immediate sensations of his own body to construct his intuitive and tactile works. Altintas uses acrylic, ink, cotton, and acrylic spatula on sandwich panel to construct highly textural works whose edges move beyond those of the conventional canvas. The works read as quasisculptural wall reliefs, as their depth vividly undulates across the tectonic plates, at times protruding out towards viewers and at other times receding back from them. Each painting is filled with indecipherable markings, etched lines, as well as ornamental cut-out shapes, both architectural and floral, that, like Fontana before, reveal the wall and thus our world beyond their roused and ragged surfaces.
Altintas’ process is marked by a willing surrender to chance, allowing his physical interactions with his materials, rather than a predetermined mental image, to shape the final work. What results are “open invitations” for viewers to freely engage with and interpret them.
Adrian Altintas
Born in Heidelberg in 1989, lives in Berlin.
Education and Awards
Studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. In 2019 he was awarded the young talent award 50Hertz.
Selected institutional solo exhibitions
Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (2023); Sunday-S, Copenhagen (2022); Kunstverein Heppenheim (2021); Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin (2019)
André Butzer
Born in Stuttgart in 1973, lives in Berlin.
Selected institutional solo exhibitions
Gesellschaft für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg, Museo Novecento, Florence, Museo Stefano Bardini, Florence, and St Nikolaus, Innsbruck (2024); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Kebbel Villa | Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf, Miettinen Collection, Berlin, and Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (2023); Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen (2022); Yuz Museum, Shanghai, and Museum of the Light, Hokuto (2020); IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen (2018); Växjö Konsthall, Växjö (2017); Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt, and Neue Galerie Gladbeck (2016); Kunstverein Reutlingen (2015); Halle für Kunst, Graz (2014); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, and Kunsthistorisches Museum / Theseustempel, Vienna (2011); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (2009); Kunstverein Ulm (2005); Kunstverein Heilbronn (2004)
Selected public collections
Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Art Institute of Chicago; Aurora Museum, Shanghai; Carré d’Art, Nîmes; Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York; CICA Center of International Contemporary Art, Vancouver; Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen / Bonn; Galerie moderního umění, Hradci Králové; Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen; Hall Art Foundation, Reading / VT | Derneburg; Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; Hölderlinturm, Tübingen; IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen; Kupferstichkabinett / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin; LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Marciano Art Collection, Los Angeles; MARe Museum, Bucharest; MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Museo Novecento, Florence; Museum Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden; Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Rubell Museum, Miami; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; Space K, Seoul; Ståhl Collection, Norrköping; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus / Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich; Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck; University of Washington, Seattle; Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju-si; Yuz Museum, Shanghai