Max Schmidtlein

Concerned with the expressive possibilities and limitations of painting, Max Schmidtlein (*1984) tricks, criticizes and embraces the medium with a self-referential attitude and a dash of histrionic self-irony. Questioning historical painting motives and their value and appropriation in contemporary culture, Schmidtlein defeats the commodification of contemporary artistic production. His eclectic approach seeks to explore fundamental and inexhaustible problems of painting in the interaction between material and form. The artist preferably paints on different supports such as cheap textiles, see-through organza and foil. Schmidtlein’s typically nonrepresentational formal idiom responds to the recognizably contemporary commercial aesthetic of his fabric supports in ways that range from adaptation to quotation; so do his diverse painterly materials such as ready made images, acrylic, paint, watercolors, etc. His output is distinguished by a productive disregard for the boundaries between creative disciplines—writing, painting, photography and filtering and absorption of inputs successively translated into painting.

Education

2006 - 2012
Academy of Fine Arts, Prof Stephan Dillemuth, Munich, DE


Solo Exhibitions

2020 
Max Schmidtlein, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

2017
Kunstverein Schwerin, Schwerin, DE
Pflaumi, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin, DE
Klärende Gespräche (w. Zacharias Wackwitz), Linden, Düsseldorf, DE
Max Schmidtlein/Stephan Janitzky, Reisebürogalerie, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Köln, DE

2015
Detox Plus, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin, DE
BAR PANORAMA (w. Florian Auer), hosted by JazzBar089, München, DE

2014
Keratoko News, Liszt, Berlin, DE

2013
It’s just a way to stay alive / Zukunftswahn (w. Stephan Janitzky), Deborah Schamoni, München, DE

2012
Dinge, Weytterturm, Straubing, DE

2009
wir2ok, in Zusammenarbeit mit Barbara Spiller, Galerie Zink, München, DE


Group Exhibitions

2018
Braunsfelder Family Collection, curated by Tenzing Barshee, Cologne, DE

2017
Prignitz Biennale, Kunsthalle Perleberg, Perleberg, DE
Hütte, Ludlow 38 , New York, US
202 Demons, Atelierhaus, Berlin, DE

2016
ESSAI SUR LE DON, Jahresgabenausstellung 2016, Kunstverein Schwerin, DE
Surrreal Show, KÖNIG Gallery, Berlin, DE

2014
Die Antwort der Dinge, Lothringer 13, München, DE
Jahresgaben 14, Kunstverein München, DE

2013
Herbstsalon, Deborah Schamoni, München, DE
Förderpreise der Landeshauptstadt München, München, DE
KUKUK, Deborah Schamoni, München, DE
Debütantenausstellung, Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, DE
Fuchssteiner Schmidtlein Stern Revier, Mitterfels, DE

2012
Jahresgaben 12, Kunstverein München, DE
The West/ Ruins / The Future, 1st Triennale Tiflis, Georgien, GEO