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Artists: Jinn Bronwen Lee - André Butzer

Galerie Max Hetzler presents a double exhibition of paintings by André Butzer and Jinn Bronwen Lee at Bleibtreustraße 15/16 in Berlin. The exhibition runs in conjunction with Kirschmichel, a solo exhibition by André Butzer at Goethestraße 2/3.

Jinn Bronwen Lee’s paintings operate like optical transistors – machines built in attempts to amplify what cannot be seen. Their luminously textured surfaces resemble oculi, often obscured and unsettling like a cataract. Lee’s paintings are situated in a transitory state of in-between, amidst the obfuscated and the clarified, like a prism. They open up another way of seeing, driving the viewer into an uncharted terrain. In paraphrasing Samuel Beckett, Lee asserts that ‘the fundamental aim of an artist is to find a form that accommodates the “mess” (= life)’. For her, painting is a vessel in which existential processes are accommodated and fermented. Such processes are reminiscent of a slow-burning pyre, with each painting undergoing physical, spatial and chemical changes over time, as they settle into their finite form – they burn, they renew and are judged accordingly.

Two paintings by André Butzer engage in a vivid dialogue with Jinn Bronwen Lee’s captivating canvasses. Butzer’s paintings are imbued with comparable philosophical and literary cogitations. The Woman, the Wanderer, and the Friedens-Siemens – the artist’s ever-evolving characters – point towards opposing forces such as loneliness and communion, exploration and familiarity, death and life. Realised in simplicity and fullness, Butzer’s figures echo their surroundings, bringing forth a colouristic unison in which everything comes into appearance as one.

Jinn Bronwen Lee (*1984, South Korea) lives and works in Berlin. The artist’s work has been presented in institutional group exhibitions at the Logan Center for the Arts, The University of Chicago (2022 and 2014); Salon Dahlmann, Berlin (2016); and the American Academy in Rome (2016), among others.

André Butzer (*1973, Stuttgart), lives in Berlin-Wannsee. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held in international institutions, including the Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen (2022); YUZ Museum, Shanghai, and Museum of the Light, Hokuto (both 2020); IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen (2018); Växjö Konsthall (2017); Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt, and Neue Galerie Gladbeck (2016); Kunstverein Reutlingen (2015); Künstlerhaus – Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz (2014); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, and Kunsthistorisches Museum / Theseustempel, Vienna (2011); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (2009); Kunstverein Ulm (2005) and Kunstverein Heilbronn (2004).