Logo of the Berlinischen Galerie

Marc
Brandenburg

20th Century Debris

© Photo: CHROMA, André Carvalho

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. 

The major retrospective will be about 170 drawings, videos, tattoo editions and photographs.

Events

26
June
Friday
Event

Brandenboogie #1

Tattoos and music with the artist as part of the exhibition “Marc Brandenburg. 20th Century Debris”

14
August
Friday
Event

Brandenboogie #2

Tattoos and music with the artist as part of the exhibition “Marc Brandenburg. 20th Century Debris”

Guided Tours

25
April
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

2
May
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

9
May
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

16
May
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

23
May
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

30
May
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

6
June
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

13
June
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

20
June
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

27
June
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

4
July
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

11
July
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

18
July
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

25
July
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

1
August
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

8
August
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

15
August
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

22
August
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

29
August
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

5
September
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

12
September
Saturday
Guided Tour

Guided Tour in English: Marc Brandenburg

Over 60 minutes we offer insights into the special exhibitions

Black-and-white inverted drawing by the artist on paper. The motif is a woman in front of an open window putting on a toy nose.

Exhibition Texts

Texts and images provide an overview of the exhibition’s sections

Read here

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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.

About Marc Brandenburg

Marc Brandenburg was born in West Berlin in 1965. He spent his early childhood in the United States. In 1977, he returned to his home city, where punk became a formative experience and he found himself in the creative subculture of West Berlin. Through fashion, Brandenburg came to art as an autodidact and he started exhibiting his drawings in the 1990s. Solo exhibitions followed, for instance, at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (1993), MMK Frankfurt (2005), Denver Art Museum (2010), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2011), PalaisPopulaire (2021), Städel Museum (2021/2022), and many others. He lives and works today in Berlin and Barcelona.

With the generous support of the Capital Cultural Fund

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