André Butzer
— The Arts Club London 04 September 2023 — 14 January 2024

Recognised for his fusion of American pop culture with expressionist painting, revered German painter André Butzer’s (b.1973) works oscillate between an unmistakeable cast of characters and pure colours and forms. This exhibition pairs the launch of a new series of brushstroke paintings on canvas with newly completed portraits finished between 2022 and 2023. Rendered in the exuberant and expressive palette that has won the artist widespread acclaim over the past three decades, the works display a contemporary variation on the bright, so-called ‘Science Fiction Expressionist’ style that Butzer uses to explore a sense of longing that has long been a part of human nature.

Butzer’s four new paintings spread out individual brushstrokes, intermingling reds, yellows and blues and added flesh tones. The paintings lay bare the building blocks, as well as the colouristic and historical heritage of his paintings, which are neither figurative nor abstract but complete beings of the unison and presence of colour.

Butzer’s pieces colour The Arts Club with bright compositions, inviting viewers to trace his highly characteristic works which are a testament to a powerful, continuous enquiry into societal contradictions and social non-conformity.

Special thanks to the artist and Max Hetzler Gallery for this extraordinary show.