July 28th to September 2nd 2023

M. LeBlanc is proud to present German artist Hans-Jörg Mayer’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, titled ‘That Summer Feelin’ Is Gonna Haunt Me For The Rest Of My Life’. The exhibition takes its title from the lyrics of the 1983 hit by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers.

Hans-Jörg Mayer (German, b. 1955 in Singen) lives and works in Berlin. Mayer’s work has been exhibited throughout the world over the past three decades. Born near Lake Konstanz in the Black Forest, Mayer attended the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich from 1975 to 1982, before relocating to Cologne. While Mayer lived in Cologne, he rose to prominence as one of his generation’s most compelling painters, making exhibitions with the tastemaking spaces of the day, such as, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Galerie Bleich-Rossi, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, and Galerie Christian Nagel. Since 1999, Mayer has lived and worked in Berlin.

For ‘That Summer Feelin’ Is Gonna Haunt Me For The Rest Of My Life’, the gallery will present several new paintings from Mayer. Included are his most recent butterfly, Aldi bag, surfer, and ‘atomic’ insect paintings.

Among the works included in the exhibition are two of Mayer’s paintings of Aldi bags, an itinerant series of works that the artist began a decade prior. The iconic Aldi bag - with its diagonal bars of blue and white - is a painting and social artwork by the abstract painter Gunter Frühtrunk. Aldi discontinued the use of the bag in 2018. Mayer’s works make a near readymade of this dreary plasticity (painting of plastic bag as a painting, painting of an artwork) as well as a sly homage to the late artist.

In addition to his flower works, Mayer began painting insects in the past few years - bees, wasps, moths, and especially butterflies. Mascots for the climate crisis, for transformation, for imminent death. Two of the larger paintings are those of large red Peacock butterflies - one Mayer has named ‘Mata Hari’ after the Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed after being convicted of being a German spy during the first World War. Also on view is his series of Atomic Insects where single bees, wasps, and butterflies are rendered in front of lazy washes shaping out atomic bomb mushroom clouds.

Hans-Jörg Mayer (German, b. 1955 in Singen, DE) lives 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 private and public collections throughout the world.