André Butzer – A Colorful Ode to the Energy of His Adopted Home

As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are focusing on exhibitions at spaces that are now receiving public visitors. Check out this show at a newly reopened gallery below.

“André Butzer”
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

What the gallery says: “Since 2018, André Butzer resides in California and continues his elementary explorations of color, light, and pictorial scale. Yet, everything seems to be ‘seen anew.’ His paintings virtually reinvent themselves. Some of them are now even titled again, often in the form of basic words such as ‘Pistachios,’ ‘Barber Shop,’ and ‘Lunch.’ Everyday things, places and activities from which the mosaic of an American experience gradually forms itself.”

Why it’s worth a look: The Berlin- and London-based gallery is reopening in style, debuting a joyful new show of works in an equally impressive building at Bleibtreustraße 15/16, marking the third space in the German city. The stately art nouveau building was once the home of German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, who fled for London when the Nazis took over.

Even looking in through the ornate windows of the new space, the jubilant colors of Butzer’s work would delight even the most wary of visitors. Inside the gallery space—where, rest assured, the gallery is maintaining strict post-COVID guidelines—Butzer’s works of expressive brushstrokes and cartoonish characters hold court, barely contained within the confines of the canvas, in works like the show centerpiece, the exuberant canvas known as English Muffins.

What it looks like:

André Butzer, <i>English Muffins</i> (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, English Muffins (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

Installation view, “André Butzer.” Photo: Jeff McLane
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London.

Installation view, “André Butzer.” Photo: Jeff McLane
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London.

Installation view, "André Butzer." Photo: Jeff McLane Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London.

Installation view, “André Butzer.” Photo: Jeff McLane
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London.

André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, <i>Untitled</i> (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, [detail]Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, <i>English Muffins</i> (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, English Muffins (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler.

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