In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, German artist Hans-Jörg Mayer became established as one of Cologne’s emerging painters of note. The artist had relocated to the city from Munich and began shortly thereafter making exhibitions with recently established tastemaking galleries of the day - Galerie Daniel Buchholz and Galerie Christian Nagel. A champion of stylistic fluidity and aesthetic irreverence, Mayer continually garnered praise for his practice as he moved through multiple, seemingly incohesive bodies of work, including hard-edge graphic text paintings, slapdash paper sculpture, large romantic figurative tableaus, and onto lushly detailed dystopian hellscapes. A contemporary and occasional collaborator of other luminaries of the age (e.g. Michel Majerus, Martin Kippenberger, Iza Genzken), Mayer has spent the last four decades building a body of work that, through a litany of conceptual lenses, asks how one’s perception of identity is shaped through the relationship between the subjects an artist renders and the artist as an individual living in the world.

Hans-Jörg Mayer (b. 1955 in Singen, DE) lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions of Mayer’s work include A Touch of Chthulu (2020) at Galerie Nagel Draxler in Cologne and Sweet Distance - Bittere Maronen (2018) at nationalmuseum in Berlin. Mayer’s work has been included in many institutional exhibitions, including Painting 2.0: Malerei im Informationszeitalter (2015/16) at MuMoK in Vienna and Museum Brandhorst in Munich, Captain Pamphile – Ein Bildroman in Stücken (2011) at Collection Falckenberg, Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne (2007) at the Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington, Seattle and Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, and Made In Berlin (2004) at Art Forum Berlin, Berlin. In addition, Mayer’s practice has been the focus of multiple features in national and international periodicals, and is held in numerous public and private collections.

CURRICULUM VITAE

PRESS

EXHIBITIONS

July 28th to September 2nd 2023
That Summer Feelin' Is Gonna Haunt Me The Rest Of My Life

October 18th to November 20th 2021
MOLOCH

March 13th to May 16th 2020
2020

March 3rd to April 14th 2018
Kristen Stewart

January 13th to February 24th 2018
SKIP TRACER