Biography
Magnus Plessen, born in 1967 in Hamburg, Germany, lives and works in Berlin. He initially worked as a photographer and filmmaker before turning to painting in 2000. Since 2019, he has been Professor of Painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe.
Magnus Plessen’s works are characterized by a meticulous construction of the image and a particular attention to the painterly process. Through his practice, he does not seek to represent reality, but rather to depict emotional states. Spectral human figures inhabit his compositions, slipping into a space between figuration and abstraction. In his recent works, Plessen explores the notions of rotation and revolution as means of reorganizing pictorial structure and space. Motifs and fragments are arranged around central axes, generating a sense of movement, energy, and instability. His distinctive palette combines muted yellows with vivid pinks, at times punctuated by acidic tones, while the use of charcoal introduces a darker depth, both visually and symbolically.
Plessen has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, notably at the Rose Art Museum, Massachusetts; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21, Düsseldorf; and MoMA PS1, New York.
His work has also been presented in solo exhibitions at several galleries, including White Cube in London and Hong Kong; Gladstone Gallery in New York; Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf and Berlin; Wentrup in Berlin; and Mai 36 in Zurich. Plessen has participated in various international group exhibitions, notably at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museu Serralves, Porto; and the Goetz Collection, Munich, and he represented Germany at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.
Works by Magnus Plessen are held in major international collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Art Institute of Chicago; Kunstsammlung NRW K20/K21; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the De La Cruz Collection, Miami; the Ellipse Foundation, Cascais; the Fundación Amparo y Manuel, Mexico; the Goetz Collection, Munich; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Rachofsky House, Dallas; the Rose Art Museum, Massachusetts; the Rubell Collection, Miami; and the Start Museum, Shanghai.
