On Paper-2026: Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Goethestraße 2/3
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, is pleased to present the third iteration of On Paper, a group show exploring the enduring relevance of paper as medium. Bringing together works spanning several generations, the exhibition reveals how paper remains a vital ground for artistic innovation, critical reflection, and material exploration.
Across their respective practices, artists including Katharina Grosse (b. 1961), Eddie Martinez (b. 1977), and Tursic & Mille (both b. 1974) all utilise paper as a site of dynamic experimentation. In Grosse's prismatic dispersions, Martinez's instinctive, automatic lines, and Tursic & Mille's colourful abstract works, the artists harness the immediacy of gesture and form. In the practices of Bridget Riley (b. 1931) and Günther Förg (1952-2013), paper offers fertile ground for meticulous drawing and planning. This is encapsulated in Riley's geometric investigation into the harmonies and dissonances of colour and form, as much as in Förg's sixteen-part acrylic on paper composition from 1992. Belonging to his 'Farbfeld' series, the work offers an investigation into monochrome abstraction. Each utilising paper's materiality to different ends, Mark Grotjahn (b. 1968) performs mark-making as an act of rhythm and repetition, Sarah Crowner (b. 1974) presents an abstract, labyrinthine drawing which operates as a compositional map for her larger 'Tableaux en Laine', and Vivien Zhang (b. 1990) draws from diverse source material - from migrating butterflies to world map projections - to address themes of diaspora and identity.
Gestures of the body find a distinct material resonance in the drawings of Grace Weaver (b. 1989) and Louise Bonnet (b. 1970), who depict the female figure with tenderness or temerity. Paper acts as vessel for history and memory in the portraits of Giulia Andreani (b. 1985), composed in her signature Payne's grey. For Victor Man (b. 1974), his recurring skull motif, etched in crayon on paper, acts as a memento mori. Carroll Dunham (b. 1949) and William N. Copley's (1919-1996) anatomically reduced figures are situated between movement and stillness, the mundane and the phantasmagorical. In his crude treatment of the drawn line, Karel Appel (1921-2006) reveals a sense of primal energy and emotive immediacy in his compositions of humans and animals, whilst Paul McCarthy (b. 1942) employs the medium of paper to probe questions of our deeper consciousness and desires. Evoking scenes of contemplation, Eleanor Swordy (b. 1987) mirrors the inward turn of thought in her intricate pastel compositions.
The archival nature of paper reveals the capacity to hold memories of process and narrative. To this end, Rinus Van de Velde (b. 1983) constructs fictional biographies, Glenn Brown (b. 1966) distends, distorts and reimagines art historical sources, creating juxtaposing narratives of past and present, and Friedrich Kunath (b. 1974) creates fantasy-infused landscapes where sentiment is met with introspection. Working solely on paper, Walton Ford (b. 1960) merges historical fact with fantastical imagination in his luminous watercolours. Standing as autonomous investigations of psychological states and memory, Sabine Moritz's (b. 1969) rich, abstracted surfaces are achieved without preliminary sketches. Rendered in delicate pencil, KAWS's (b. 1974) iconic CHUM character moves through a classical landscape suggested by cracked stone and distant trees. With characteristic emotional complexity, CHUM's posture conveys determination tempered by resignation. Using the medium to articulate systems and characters that underpin their broader practices, Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997), Albert Oehlen (b. 1954), André Butzer (b. 1973), and Matthew Barney (b. 1967) each work between figuration and abstraction, channelling paper's responsiveness to function as a correspondent to their wider oeuvre.
Paper, as a material, is a sediment of our organic environment. Ida Ekblad's (b. 1980) fluid constellations, Janaina Tschäpe's (b. 1973) morphogenic compositions, and Jake Longstreth's (b. 1977) sun-drenched landscapes situate paper within the ecology of matter. Tal R (b. 1967) presents two large, colourful fruit bowls, from a new body of still lifes within his series of 'domestics'. Jeremy Demester (b. 1988) depicts intimate moments from daily life and transforms optical phenomena into painterly terrains using earthy pigments and vivid colours, with a focus on paper's materiality and its close relationship to natural topographies.
Exploring themes ranging from the conceptual to the material, from tradition to experimentation, and from abstraction to figuration, On Paper foregrounds the versatility and continued relevance of its titular medium.
