Maximilian Prüfer | First Alphabet

In Maximilian Prüfer’s world, the image is never entirely settled or fixed. It indexes movement drawn out over time. Interested in registers that lie beyond sight, the artist will mention interesting facts such as the percentage of insects that have diminished over the past decade (70%) or how his interest in the science of dust clouds in the atmosphere - their gravitational pull and sources of vapor - connects to both the formation of rain and stars.

These are linked both conceptually and visually in his nine constellation-like works on display for Prüfer’s new solo show at Galerie Kandlhofer ‚First Alphabet‘ , showing imprints that were made with, and by, raindrops. Visitors are invited to a blacked-out exhibition space to scrutinize the impact of rainfall on Naturantypie, the specially coated paper Prüfer has developed. On one level, the paper marks absence; the shift that occurs within the surface’s coating results from the effect of falling water. On the other, it captures an impression of constant flux in subtle ripples of this precise movement. Cosmic white dots and circles emanate and glow from a background the colour of the night sky. The deeper the white-on-black, the greater the volume of rain.

Prüfer’s artistic practice often begins with a tiny scale, moving from the trails and traces that ants, bees and snails leave behind to a broader understanding of collective behaviors. His most recent rain works draw a line from small displacements — which on closer look have the crystallized effect of bulletholes on punctured glass — to a starry universe. This artistic gesture maps out what looks like an automated celestial drawing, prompting a sense of magnitude within the minute. While his work can be seen in terms of the ever-present ecological catastrophe and the scarcity of water, there is something poetic about waiting for rain, about an experiment on the surface of the image with non-human participants. For Prüfer, turning one’s attention to all forms of life in the natural environment is a way to grapple with loss and our existence. Interested in what exists beyond our immediate experience, he creates visual narratives from that which cannot be grasped with the body alone.

There is a feeling engendered of being immersed by constellations, engulfed by darkness, with three-dimensional sculptures in steel that have been translated from the two-dimensional into star maps in the forms of the Big Bear, Pegasus and Andromeda. Materials are always considered for context — his rain works are framed with wood embedded with a found meteorite.

Nature has always been the space and studio in which he works, a sphere that dissolves all sense of boundaries. It is from this space that another language springs forth — a vocabulary of residues, broken signs and the knowledge that has always been here.

Words by Nadine Khalil

About the artist: 

Maximilian Prüfer (b.1986 in Weilheim Obb, Germany) Prüfer studied Design and Communication Strategy at The Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and Fine Arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Italy.

Prüfer´s recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Fruits of Labour’, Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, 2023 (upcoming), ’First Alphabet’, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2023; ‘Inwelt’, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2021; ‘WIR’, Kugelmühle, Mühlbach, 2020; 'Tier', Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2019; 'Vieh', Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden, 2018; 'Nest', Sotheby’s Artist Quarterly, Sotheby’s Munich, 2018. His work has been included in recent group shows: ‘...alle Jahre wieder... Jahresgaben 2019’, Kunstverein Arnsberg, 2020; ‘Flügelschlag’, Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homburg, 2020; 'Flügelschlag', Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homburg, 2019; 'Egon Schiele, Reloaded', Leopold Museum, Vienna, 2018/19, 'I Followed You To The Sun’, Galerie Kandlhofer, 2018; H2 Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg, DE, 2017; Neue Galerie im Höhmannshaus, Augsburg, DE, 2016. Maximilian Prüfer is a recipient of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation EHF Artist Grant 2018. He was also awarded with the Bavarian Kunstförderpreis 2021.