Michael Krebber (Cologne, Germany, 1954) is one of the most influential contemporary painters working today. Exploring the continual exhaustion, withdrawal, engagement and renewal of painting, the artist’s practice is deeply embedded in its history and materials, yet characterized by both an affirmation and negation of the medium.
Reflecting Krebber’s approach to painting — its expressive language as well as its critical function —, this exhibition presents a selection of close to one hundred works from the past three decades from numerous private and institutional collections across Europe and the US. The paintings, drawings and sculptures on view range from hesitations and disavowals to a variety of motifs and gestures by turns emphatic, arresting or ironic — occasionally all at the same time. Together they trace as much a line of interested conviction, as a recursive arc of starts, fits and restarts, repetitions and murmurs.
A central reference in the conversation around the medium’s continued relevance, Krebber’s work constitutes a set of responses to a problem called ‘painting’, persistent in its fascination, obdurate in its delayed resolution.
‘Michael Krebber: The Living Wedge’ is organized by the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto with the Kunsthalle Bern, and curated by João Ribas (Serralves Deputy Director and Senior Curator) and Valérie Knoll (Director, Kunsthalle Bern).
Related Activities
OPENING
14 OUT (SEX), 22HOfficial opening
GUIDED VISITS AND CONVERSATIONS
25 OUT (TUE), 18H30At the Museum Galleries... with Bernardo Pinto de AlmeidaMore info here.
24 NOV (THU), 18H30At the Museum Galleries... with José António Ramalheira Coruja Vaz, researcher and profesorMore info here.
07 JAN 2017 (SAT), 17H00Guided visit by Ana Manso, artistMore info here.
14 JAN 2017 (SAT), 17H00WORKS IN CONVERSATIONMore info here.
EXCLUSIVE MEETING FOR MEMBERS OF AMIGOS DE SERRALVES
15 NOV (TUE), 19H30
Guided visit to the exhibition 'MICHAEL KREBBER: THE LIVING WEDGE' with João Ribas, Deputy Director and senior curator of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art.
More info here.
Michael Krebber
Michael Krebber has had solo exhibitions at Greene Naftali, New York (2015); Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (2014); Maureen Paley, London (2013); CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2012); and Richard Telles Fine Arts, Los Angeles (2010). His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; and Museum Brandhorst, Munich. He was awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 2015. Krebber lives and works in Cologne.
Exhibition Sponsor