Martin Brüger

Martin Brüger’s work is based on apparently familiar visual information, manipulating it in a way that is as consistent as it is precise. Pieces of furniture or views of buildings lose their definite quality, forcing supposed certainty to give way to a tentatively exploratory, self-reflexive kind of observation. The artifact is turned into the object of a constructive destabilization; in this process, the artist, always pursuing a sculptural idea, makes use of various media: photography, object, and installation.

Examples of this are the »Mannheimer Zimmer«, and »dropped furnishings«. These two installations each begin with a complete living room set. In one, the artist has attached the furniture at a particular distance just below the ceiling; the viewer looks up at it from below, as if seeing through a false floor made of glass. In the other installation, he turns scattered furnishings into a sort of precarious pedestal supporting a model of a white cube that is exactly the same size as the living room from which the furniture originally came.

Martin Brüger succeeds in walking a fine line between recognition and disturbance, between high and low cultures, and he also uses this for his colored furniture structures and refrigerator objects: in these works, he gives new meaning to electric and kitchen appliances by turning the objects into minimalist sculptures. In recent works Auto insignia and other accessories integrated into their surfaces create colorful objects, whose diverse signs and ostensible functions seem to put them into a kind of overheated state.

Martin Brüger’s fusing of high and mass cultures also defines the museum photographs, which are also based on a cut-out process. Ordinary types of patterned and textured wallpapers appear in frames where paintings would normally be, and the frames themselves look like abstract compositions, while at the same time, they create an ambiguous minimal space between the real and the photographed wall.

VITA
 

1965
born in Amorbach / Odenwald

1988-94
Academy of Fine Arts, Kassel

1994
Otto-Braun-Scholarship for art studies

1995-97
Charlotte-Prinz-Scholarship, Darmstadt

1998-99
Working Grant, Hessian Culture GmbH

2000-01
Lectureship, Academy of Fine Arts, Kassel

2004
H.W. & J. Hector Art Award (2nd Prize), Kunsthalle Mannheim

2007-08
Artist in Residence, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst

2009
Working Grant, Foundation Kunstfonds

2010
EVO-Art-Award, Offenbach

2010-11

Visiting Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Kassel

2013-14
Lectureship, Academy of Fine Arts, Mainz

lives and works in Darmstadt

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022
Auf schwankendem Boden, Kunstmuseum Bonn

2017
Stop and go, Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2015
Meta Objects, Galerie Hanfweihnacht, Frankfurt/M.
Geräte, SPAM Contemporary, Düsseldorf

2013
turbo, Rasche Ripken, Berlin
Reality Cuts, Galerie Hanfweihnacht, Frankfurt/M.

2012
Erwartung und Kurzschluss, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim

2011
Auf schwankendem Boden, Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt
Mehr und weniger, Galerie Marietta Haas, Ingolstadt

2010
Come In, Kunstverein Bochum (outdoor-installation)
Undinge, Galerie im Turm, EVO, Offenbach
Antinorm, Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2009
B-Waren, Kunstverein Ingolstadt
Auf schwankendem Boden, Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim, Neuenhaus

2008
copy & paste, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst, Hörstel
Galerie Schütte, Essen

2006
frameworks, Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

2005
extensions, Galerie der Stadt Bachnang
Galerie Schütte, Essen

2004
dropped furnishings, Kunstverein Bochum

2003
Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

2002
Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg

2001
Rundblick auf 264,5 Meter 19. Jahrhundert, Neue Galerie, Staatliche Museen Kassel

2000
extended views, Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

1999
Kunstverein Freiburg
Kunstverein Schwerte

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2019
Auf Kollision, Kunstverein Ingolstadt
Vor der Kunst. Bilder einer Ausstellung, Galerie Netuschil, Darmstadt

2018
5th André-Evert Art-Award, Kunsthalle Messmer, Riegel
Artisten – Hugo Koch zu Ehren, Galerie Januar, Bochum
Full House – 10 Jahre, Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2016
Schnitt Schnitt, Kunsthalle Darmstadt

2013
In situ, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst
Chancen und Risiken, Galerie Hanfweihnacht, Frankfurt/M.

2012
bis hier ... 50 Jahre Kunstverein Bochum, Museum Bochum
Eine Türklingel, die macht mir nichts, dir nichts ding-dong, Kunstverein Aschaffenburg
Blindheit des Sehens, Städtische Galerie Bad Nauheim
ein blick, Bilder aus der Sammlung Schütte, Kunstraum der Scheidt´schen Hallen, Essen

2011
Vielfach verortet, Museum Künstlerkolonie, Darmstadt

2010
Kunst + Leben, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst
Blindheit des Sehens, Frankfurter Kunstblock, Frankfurt/M.

2009
Bilder gesellschaftlichen Wandels, Galerie der Schader-Stiftung, Darmstadt
Hessendesign, Designhaus Darmstadt
Schreiben mit Licht, Galerie Schütte, Essen

2008
1:X (Raum // Modell), Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2007
countdown, Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

2006
(de)zentral, Neuer Kunstverein Gießen
Mathilda is calling, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt

2005
Lohn der Arbeit, Museum Alte Post, Mülheim/Ruhr
Neue Heimat 2, Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

2004
Hector Kunstpreis, Kunsthalle Mannheim
True Lies, Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, Kallmann-Museum, Ismaningen

2003
Flüchtige Verfestigung, Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt/M.

2002
Neubau II, Galerie Stefan Rasche, Münster

2001
Märkisches Stipendium 2002, Städtische Galerie Lüdenscheid
Hausarbeiten – der Alltag daheim, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn

2000
Das Material des Bildhauers – Der Ort, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
Back to Kassel, Kasseler Kunstverein
Ausstellung zum Saar-Ferngas-Förderpreis, Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern

1999
Korrespondenzen, Kunsthalle Darmstadt