Marc Brandenburg: 20th Century Debris Solo exhibition at Berlinische Galerie

Marc Brandenburg (*1965) ranks internationally among the leading graphic artists of our day. His work is a mix of drawing, collage, installation, video and performance. Detailed pencil drawings based on photographs constitute the core. Brandenburg takes these pictures on his forays around the world or else samples them from magazines, films and books. His drawings pick up on the contrasts of urban life and point a finger at social wrongs but also at superfluity and consumerism as products of late capitalism. He conveys not so much a narrative as a melancholy or sinister mood, subtly drawing attention to the crises of our time. 

As a close observer of life in the metropolis, Brandenburg seeks out the peculiarities of urban reality and directs his attention to seemingly trivial things beyond standardized notions of beauty. At the same time, pop culture symbols are part of his world of images: portraits of famous individuals, pornography, fast food, kitsch. Brandenburg regards excess and consumption as well as social ills as effects of late capitalism. His pictures nonetheless rarely transport a narrative, but instead generate a melancholic and ominous atmosphere that subtly references the crises of our era: 20th Century Debris.

The exhibition presents more than 170 works by the artist with loans, for instance, from the Deutsche Bank Collection, the Federal Republic of Germany’s Contemporary Art Collection, the Kupferstichkabinett of the Berlin State Museums, as well as other private and public collections. They include both current and also early, rarely shown drawings from the 1990s, alongside videos, tattoo editions, and photographs.

With the generous support of the Capital Cultural Fund