Matthias Bitzer “A Different Sort Of Gravity”

Boesky East

This event has ended.

Marianne Boesky Gallery presents the second solo exhibition of Berlin-based artist Matthias Bitzer.

a different sort of gravity features a new body of work that explores the ways in which thoughts, images, and objects are interpreted through language and memory. A concurrent exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Dashiell Manley will be on view in the adjacent Marianne Boesky Gallery at 509 W. 24th Street.

The interplay between seemingly disparate subjects, sources, and contexts forms the core of Bitzer’s practice. In both his two and three-dimensional works, these distinct ideas come together to reveal unseen narratives and surprising connections. This conceptual underpinning is newly experienced with this body of work, which includes a series of multi-part installations that are composed of drawings, paintings, and mixed-media panels as well as freestanding steel and light sculptures.

Inspired by a diversity of sources—including historical and literary imagery and Bitzer’s own dreams and fictional imaginings—and culled from an ongoing archive created over two decades, the iconography presented within these installations is particularly personal to the artist. Yet, it is also relatable to the viewers, who serve an important function in the interpretative process, filtering the conceptual, visual, and spatial qualities through their physical presence and personal experience of the work. This ongoing cycle that passes from the original source through the artist’s hands to the viewer’s engagement highlights the intangible nature of objects as they change with each phase of contact.

Bitzer also approaches this presentation of works within the gallery as an installation unto itself, carefully choreographing each piece to create a dialogue that slowly uncovers recurring themes, ideas, and patterns. Geometric motifs that reappear within the multi-panel wall works also find broader resonance and context within the overarching visual language of the exhibition.

Within this methodical orchestration, special attention is also paid to the spatial dynamics within the multi-paneled wall works as relating to freestanding sculptures. This is further accentuated by the way certain works are inlaid and cut into the wall, melding and challenging the boundaries between artwork, wall, and the gallery space. This sense of boundless movement is also extended by visitors as they move among the works—the scale of the body becomes another connective thread in the experience.

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Matthias Bitzer was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1975. He graduated from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe, Germany in 2004. Since his first solo exhibition at Galerie Iris Kadel, Karlsruhe in 2004, Bitzer’s work has been included in a number of international exhibitions at venues including the Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2009); the Rosenblum Collection, Paris (2011); and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012). Bitzer received the Nordhorn City Art Prize in 2007 and the Otto Dix Award (Gera, Germany) in 2010. Bitzer’s first exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery, titled Saturine Swing took place at both the Uptown and Chelsea locations in spring 2014. Bitzer currently lives and works in Berlin.