MAXIMILIAN RÖDEL

The intention of artist Maximilian Rödel lies in the creation of a connection between viewer and artwork and an emerging aura: “I want to transform the material from its raw state into a kind of radiance. This process is neither uniform nor arbitrary. Color, size, and paint application play an essential role. There must be a tension that keeps the pictorial process going, so to speak. In this process, the pictures must each work on their own.” (Maximilian Rödel, 2021)

The art works seem to be abstract and monochrome only at first glance. Already with the title it becomes clear that it is rather about the artist’s idea of images of “previously inexperienced places”: “prehistoric sunsets” – sunsets before our time. In the opposite direction, the works entitled “yet untitled” refer to a future – after our time. Events that we cannot know at all, but which at the same time seem strangely familiar to us. Despite the two-dimensionality of the paintings, Rödel’s works unfold a perceptible depth and an intense pull. We are able to “experience” an event through art – which is otherwise inaccessible to us; art becomes the vehicle of an experience that was previously impossible. The placelessness and timelessness of the works extend to a prehistoric as well as to an apocalyptic future time frame in which we ourselves occupy only a minimal point.

Maximilian Rödel, born 1984, lives and works in Berlin. He graduated as a master student of Fine Arts in the classes of Walter Dahn (HBK Braunschweig), Thomas Zipp and Robert Lucander (UdK, Berlin) and shows his work in various international exhibitions, including documenta 15, Kassel (2022); Johann König, Berlin; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021); Art Berlin (2017); Kunstverein Hannover (2013); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (IMOCA) (2010).

Maximilian Rödel’s exhibition is the artist’s first solo show at Martina Tauber Fine Art, having previously shown his work in the group exhibition “Lost in Paradise” 2021 and at HIGHLIGHTS Internationale Kunstmesse München 2021. The exhibition coincides with his solo exhibition at Carvalho Park, New York. During the exhibition, a Book Launch of his monograph will take place in mid-May 2021 at the offices of Martina Tauber Fine Art in Munich. The date is yet to be announced.