KATHARINA GROSSE


KATHARINA GROSSE

One of the most important painters of today, Katharina Grosse (b. 1961, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) is internationally recognised for her bold, haptic paintings and saturated use of colour. Since the late 1990s, Grosse has employed a spraying technique to attack, redefine and subvert traditional notions of painting. Her kaleidoscopic vision spills into the physical world, sweeping across walls, floors, ceilings, everyday objects and sculptural structures. Through this radical inclusion of space as a field of action, the artist achieves a paradoxical clash of the expansion of colour with our material existence. Tracing the artist’s thought process or gaze, colour takes on a lifeforce of its own.

Parallel to her in-situ works, the artist continues to pursue her studio paintings. In her most recent canvases, vibrant loops of colour float, almost three-dimensionally, over white ground. As the colours intertwine like loose strands of thread, the paintings record Grosse’s ongoing reflections on density and velocity. Such works present a radical compression of movement and colour, creating the largest amount of action and entertainment possible over the smallest amount of surface. 

‘Paint as materiality and color as immediate chromaticity; raw industrial paints; complex layers of color and their various factual and optical entanglements; the use of stencils; the expansion of the painting beyond the boundaries of the canvas – these are some of the most significant methods through which Grosse creates structural openness but also startling fissures and ruptures. Rooted in process and experiment, chance and control, Grosse’s paintings frequently hover between form and dissolution of form and the liminal spaces in between, evoking perceptual uncertainties that are immersive and distracting at once. Ultimately, her paintings remain hermetic, resisting translation into language and narration.’

S. Eckmann, ‘Introduction’, in Katharina Grosse: Studio Paintings 1988–2022, exh. cat., Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, and travelling; Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2022, p. 13

Image: Untitled, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 148 x 121 cm.; 58 1/4 x 47 5/8 in. Photo: Jens Ziehe, © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023

Artist Talk

Solo Exhibitions


Group Exhibitions


Selected Institutional Exhibitions


Biography


VITA

1961

Born in Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany


19821986 

Kunstakademie Münster


1990

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf


1992

Villa Romana Stipend, Florence 


1993

Schmidt-Rottluff Stipend


1999 

Artist Residence, Chinati-Foundation, Marfa


2001

Artist Residence, Elam School of Fine Art program, Auckland


2002 

Andy Warhol Residency Award, Headlands Foundation, San Francisco


2003

Fred-Thieler Prize


2014 

Oskar Schlemmer Prize of Baden-Württemberg


2015

Otto-Ritschl Prize, Wiesbaden


Lives and works in Berlin, Germany and New Zealand

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Albertina Museum, Vienna

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen

Baltimore Museum of Art

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Istanbul Modern

Kunsthaus Zürich

Kunstmuseum Bonn

Kunstsammlung NRW, Dusseldorf

Lenbachhaus, Munich

Magasin III, Stockholm

Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest

MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome

Milwaukee Art Museum

Museum Azman, Jakarta

Museum of Fine Arts, Bern

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas 

Neues Museum, Nuremberg

Pérez Art Museum, Miami

QAGOMA, Brisbane 

Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Serralves Museum, Porto 

Sprengel Museum, Hanover

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Städtische Museen, Freiburg

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

Hetzler Marfa

Studio Paintings 1988–2022: Returns, Revisions, Inventions
Kunstmuseum Bonn


2023

Katharina Grosse: Warum Drei Töne Kein Dreieck Bilden
The Albertina Museum, Vienna

The Bedroom
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

Touching How and Why and Where

Gagosian, Hong Kong

Spectrum without Traces
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

Untitled, 2023
Galerie Max Hetzler, Window Gallery, Berlin

Studio Paintings, 1988–2022
Kunstmuseum Bern


2022

Canyon
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Katharina Grosse Studio Paintings, Three Decades: Returns, Revisions, Inventions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, travelling to:
Kunstmuseum Bern;
Kunstmuseum Bonn

Destroy Me Once, Destroy Me Twice
Roskilde Festival

Apollo, Apollo 
Espace Louis Vuitton, Venice

Wolke in Form eines Schwertes / Cloud in the Form of a Sword
Saarland Museum, Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken

Chill Sleeping
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah


2021

Chill Seeping from the Walls Gets between Us
HAM Helsinki Art Museum

Als mein Vater Sand war / When my Father Was Sand

Y8 Kunstraum + Yoga e. V., Hamburg

Wolke in Form eines Schwertes / Cloud in the Form of a Sword
Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

From The Foam’s Fudge Edge

König Galerie, Seoul

Repetitions Without Origin
Gagosian, Beverly Hills


2020 

Separatrix
Gagosian, Rome

It Wasn’t Us
Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

Is It You?
Baltimore Museum of Art


2019

Mural: Jackson Pollock I Katharina Grosse
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Katharina Grosse I Gotthard Graubner. Farbe absolut x Absolute Color
MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg

Katharina Grosse / Tatiana Trouvé
Gagosian, Basel

Mumbling Mud
chi K11 art space, Guangzhou


2018

Mumbling Mud
chi K11 art museum, Shanghai

Wunderbild
National Gallery, Prague

Le numerose irregolarità: Katharina Grosse I Tatiana Trouvé
Villa Medici, Rome

The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then It Stopped
Carriageworks, Sydney

Prototypes of Imagination
Gagosian, London


2017

This Drove My Mother Up the Wall
South London Gallery

König Galerie, Berlin

Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

Gagosian, New York


2016

Rockaway! 
MoMA PS1, New York

Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden

Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich


2015

Seven Hours, Eight Rooms, Three Trees
Museum Wiesbaden

yes no why later
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow

The Smoking Kid
König Galerie, Berlin


2014 

psycholustro
City of Philadelphia Mural Arts

Wer, ich? Wen, Du? 
Kunsthaus Graz

Inside the Speaker
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

your behavior is at odds with your pretty seedy clothes
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Die Ball
Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin


2013

Two younger women came in and pull out a table
De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg

WUNDERBLOCK
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

Just Two Of Us
Downtown Brooklyn Plaza, New York

mein schreibtisch, das schneefeld
Kurt-Kurt, Berlin

Snakes lie between her and the shore
Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

Fünfzig Frauen Fünfzig Männer
Wolfsberg

Psychopapier
König Galerie, Berlin


2012

Third Man Begins Digging Through Her Pockets
MOCA, Cleveland

They Had Taken Things Along To Eat Together
König Galerie, Berlin

Blue Orange
Public Art Project, Vara

Can You Spell Mixing
Dirimart, Istanbul


2011

MÄNNER SOLLEN FRAUEN WOLLEN
Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich 

In Seven Days Time
Kunstmuseum Bonn


2010

One Floor Up More Highly
Mass MoCA, North Adams

Barbara Grosse und Katharina Grosse. Installationen und Arbeiten auf Papier
Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg im Breisgau

Come Nino Come
Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid


2009

Shadowbox
Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin

stuntweed
Neues Museum, Nuremberg

Hello Little Butterfly I Love You What's Your Name
Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Ishøj

Blut baut das Herz
Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

The Greedy I
Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich


2008

Another Man Who Has Dropped His Paintbrush
Galerie Civica di Modena

Skrow No Repap
FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand


2007

Atoms Outside Eggs
Serralves Museum, Porto

Atoms Inside Balloons
Renaissance Society, Chicago

The Surburban, Chicago

Picture Park
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Museum Bochum

This Is Not My Cat
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

The Flowershow
FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand


2006

Holey Residue
De Appel Centre, Amsterdam

Taxi und Tour
Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich

Solvent Space, Richmond

Town and Country
The Factory for Art and Design, Copenhagen

Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati

Faux Rocks
Galerìa Helga de Alvear, Madrid

INCAMERA
Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich


2005

quote of the day
Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf  

The Devil's Punchbowl
Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles

Chromicum Alumen Comp.
Solvent Space, Richmond

Constructions à cru
Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Something Leadlight
Bergen Kunsthall


2004

Infinite Logic Conference
Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall

Double Floor Painting
Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense

SAFN, Reykjavik

Perspectives 143: Katharina Grosse
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston

If Music No Good I No Dance
Viafarini, Milan

Some Atlas
Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon

Everything inside me is sprayed white
Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna


2003

Fred-Thieler-Preis
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin

Punkbreite bewegt
Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich

ohne sattel reiten II
Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf

Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica


2002

Cool Puppen
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, travelled to:
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

Der weisse Saal trifft sich im Wald
Kunstmuseum St.Gallen

Inside the White Cube
White Cube, London

Ich wüsste jetzt nichts
Kunsthalle zu Kiel

Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich


2001

Billboard, Auckland

Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju

UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Kunstverein Ruhr, Essen

Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna


2000

Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich

Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg


1999

Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn

Galerie Barbara Gross, Munich

Cheese Gone Bad
The Chinati Foundation, Marfa

Die Farbe hat mich
Kunstverein Bochum


1998

Kunstverein Heilbronn

Todd Gallery, London

Project Space
Kunsthalle Bern

Sightspacific
Kunstverein Bremerhaven


1997

Petra Bungert Gallery, New York

Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf


1996

Bildflächen-Malerei
Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck


1995 

Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich


1994

Altes Kunstmuseum, Bonn


1993 

Kunstverein Hochrhein, Bad Sackingen


1992

Modedeparis
Château de Servières, Marseille

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

On Paper
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

The Code Factory
Works from the Eighties and Nineties
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

From Gerhard Richter to Mary Heilmann: Abstract Art from Private Collections and the Museum’s Holdings
Kunst Museum Winterthur


2023

das gelbe Licht 6 Uhr nachmittags
Remembering, envisioning, sensing landscape,
curated by Christian Malycha
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

To Bend the Ear of the Outer World

Gagosian, London (Davies Street and Grosvenor Hill)

Abstract Explorations: 100 Years on Paper
Gagosian, Gstaad

Austria-Germany Painting 1970 to 2020
Albertina Modern, Vienna


2022

Fugues in Color
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Ruins & Fragments
Gagosian, Athens


2021 

Helsinki Biennial 

Out Now
Uferhallen, Berlin

Wonderland 
Albertina Modern, Vienna

Hong Kong Exchange
Gagosian, Hong Kong


2020

Alexander Kluge – THE POWER OF MUSIC / THE OPERA – Temple of Seriousness (collaborative project with Katharina Grosse, et al.) 
Kunsthalle Weishaupt;
Museum Ulm

Push the Limits
Fondazione Merz, Turin


2019

Amulet or He calls it chaos
Capp Street Foundation, San Francisco

Frozen Gesture: Gesture in painting from Roy Lichtenstein to Katharina Grosse
Kunstmuseum Winterthur

An Exhibition for Notre-Dame
Gagosian, Paris
​​​​​​​
In the Best of Company – Selected acquisitions of the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, 2009–2019

Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

German Forest
Galerie Neue Meister - Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Collezione MAXXI. Lo spazio dell’immagine
MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome


2018

The Flexible Plan: The Rococo in Contemporary Art
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen

The World on Paper
Kunsthalle by Deutsche Bank, Berlin

Deutscher Wald – Eine Sammlungspräsentation mit Gästen
Galerie Neue Meister – Albertinum, Staaliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Unpainting
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Deutschland 8
Beijing

Abstract Painting Now! 
The Kunsthalle Krems

German Forest
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Paint on. Dimensionen des Malerischen / Dimensions of the Painterly
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Mentales Gelb. Sonnenhöchststand / Mentally Yellow (High Noon) 
Kunstmuseum Bonn; 
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich


2017

ARoS Triennial, THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times 
ARoS Art Museum, Aarhus


2015

Sprayed
Gagosian, London

All the World’s Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Venice


2013

My Crippled Friend
CCAD, Columbus

6a Bienal de Curitiba
Curitiba 

An der Isar – Gegenwartskunst aus den Sammlungen der Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhausund der KiCo-Stiftung
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

Mushroom Hunter, Katharina Grosse, Joanne Greenbaum and Chris Martin
The Journal Gallery, New York


2012

Deutsche Malerei: Höhepunkte aus sechs Jahrzehnten
National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow

Sie trocknen ihre Knie mit einem Kissen
Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin

Bildspeicher II
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Grenzgänge
Villa Schöningen, Berlin

Bis hier. 50 Jahre Kunstverein Bochum
Kunstverein Bochum

Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913–2003 
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

I am a Berliner
Convento Carmelo, Sassar, travelled to:
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The Indiscipline of Painting: International abstraction from the 1960s to now
Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Cornwall

2011

Rudolf Steiner und die Kunst der Gegenwart
Stiftung Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart

Geschmack - vom guten, vom schlechten und vom wirklichen teuren
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden

The indiscipline of painting
Tate St. Ives, Cornwall

Farbe im Fluss
Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen


2010

Rudolf Steiner und die Kunst der Gegenwart
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

Quadriennale Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf

If Not In This Period Of Time
Museu de Art de São Paulo - MASP

The 2nd Today’s Documents, Negotiations
Today Art Museum, Beijing


2009

Embrace! 
Denver Art Museum

Space as Medium
Miami Art Museum


2008

There is Desire Left (Knock Knock)
Kunstmuseum Bern

De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art, Tilburg

Shake Before Using
Artium de Alava, Vitoria-Gasteiz

Prospect. 1
New Orleans Triennial


2007

Franchise 
Stichting VHDG, Leeuwarden

Sistemi e motivi
Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence


2006

TokyoBerlin / BerlinTokyo
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, travelled to:
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Deutsche Wandstücke – Sette scene di nuova pittura germanica 
Museion, Bolzano

Der blaue Reiter im 21. Jahrhundert
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

Dirty Yoga
Taipei Biennial


2005

Extreme Abstraction
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo


2004

raumfürraum
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen


2003

deutschemalereizweitausenddrei
Frankfurter Kunstverein 

Contemporary Art of Germany
Busan Metropolitan Art Museum

New abstract painting. Painting abstract now
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen

Soziale Fassaden u.a.
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

Grazie
Stiftung Schloß Dyck, Juchen

Painting 4
The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham CASO, Osaka

Process
Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki

Final Cuts
Union, London


2002

25a Bienal de São Paulo

São Paulo

Urgent Painting
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

Minibienal do Chile
Santiago de Chile


2001

milano europa 2000
PAC, Milan

Ex(o)DUS
Haifa Museum of Art

Casino 2001: 1st Quadrennial 
Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent


2000

Zeitwenden
Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien

Bleibe
Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin


1999

Chroma, Malerei der neunziger Jahre
Kunsthalle Nürnberg

Selections Fall '99
The Drawing Center, New York

Zeitwenden
Kunstmuseum Bonn


1998

Every Day
11th Biennale of Sydney


1997

Abstraction/Abstractions- Geómétries Provisoires
Musée d'Art Moderne Saint-Etienne, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez

Topping Out
Städtische Galerie Nordhorn

Videos


Publications


Katharina Grosse: Spectrum Without Traces

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa, 2024
Distributed by: Holzwarth Publications
With texts by Jurriaan Benschop and Ulrich Loock

€ 50.00

The Code Factory: Works from the Eighties and Nineties

Exhibition Poster
2024

€ 15.00

das gelbe Licht 6 Uhr nachmittags
Remembering, envisioning, sensing landscape

Exhibition Poster
2023

€ 15.00

Katharina Grosse: Spectrum without Traces

Exhibition Poster
2023

Out of stock

Selected Press


Wallpaper* October 2022

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Whitewall September 2022

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stl today September 2022

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Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin no.24 June 2022

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Harpers Bazaar May 2022

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Texte Zur Kunst no.120 December 2020

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Tagesspiegel nr.24 355 September 2020

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Kunstforum International Bd. 268 June – July 2020

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Die Zeit n.25 June 2020

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Weltkunst Nr.173 June 2020

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artnet news August 2020

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ocula May 2019

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The Sydney Morning Herald January 2018

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Muse Magazine 52 November 2018

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Dazed Digital December 2018

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ArtReview November 2018

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The Talks December 2017

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Frieze November 2017

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artnet news July 2016

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Artforum March 2012

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