Imi Knoebel 08.05.2026 - 26.06.2026

Imi Knoebel presents works from his new series: a large-format painting made of welded aluminum, individual »Zeichen«, and multipart works titled »Poem« and »Ligatur« made of Corten steel.

In the rear room, the first works one notices are the »Poem« pieces, whose individual parts run across the nearly 10-meter-long wall like letters and, when joined together, like words in lines. The wall serves as their pictorial ground, as a white sheet of paper. The free forms and the material—Corten steel—evoke associations with letters or printing types. They come together and interact yet follow no code and cannot be deciphered; they seek “only” to be image, with a universal, generally valid claim to communication.

The large-format painting »IMI 2026-01« features visible weld seams that join four thin, slightly undulating aluminum plates around an opening at the center. This opening allows the viewer to see the wall behind it, above which the work appears to hover. The brushstrokes are clearly visible in the monochrome white application of paint. Next to the work hangs a two-part »Ligatur«, much smaller in scale, but the materiality of the rough Corten steel lends weight to the composition while also creating a compelling juxtaposition.

Cut, solid aluminum serves as the artist’s painting ground for the »Zeichen«, which are likewise monochrome and painted with visible brushwork in deep dark as well as light shades of pink and yellow. The free, individual forms are mounted flat against the wall and project into the space. Spread throughout all the rooms, they are hung individually or alongside a smaller »Ligatur«. Working in series shifts the focus away from the individual object and toward the relationships among objects.

The foundations of painting and sculpture are explored, in the artist’s characteristically radical manner, through form, color, and material. The exhibition offers no easily readable answers, but rather manifold experiences.