Adrian Mudder
27.06.2025 - 24.08.2025
Adrian Mudder - How are you today?
Galerie Leuenroth
In Adrian Mudder's visual worlds, fantasy and reality oscillate in a mixture of digital and analog aesthetics. Animals act "as representatives of human characteristics and idiosyncrasies - as in fairy tales or fables. Sometimes they appear curious and sometimes bored, sometimes cheeky and sometimes tame, sometimes happy and sometimes sad, sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect. They are human because they are contradictory. This is also expressed in the cuteness of the characters, who are in an irresolvable tension with the rather melancholy, sometimes gloomy visual contexts.
People, on the other hand, appear in Mudder's work primarily as observers, involved in everyday situations. Mudder's view of them is loving, benevolent and indulgent. His observational stance is empathetic and non-judgmental. This attentive gaze transforms the ordinary into something extraordinary, allowing it to be appreciated. The contrast between the playful, almost childlike, naive elements in the surreal paintings on the one hand and the adult, often melancholy perspective in the more documentary scenes of the smartphone drawings on the other is also particularly striking. The latter are characterized by a strong ambivalence between connectedness and isolation. The figures seem to be simultaneously together and yet each on their own, connected and separated by the characteristic blurriness of Mudder's drawings - or by his use of light and shadow. (...) Mudder's work reflects this multi-layered reality, but his particular gaze transforms the potentially threatening omnipresence of being observed into something gentle, almost comforting. His figures - be they people, ducks or snails - are viewed with an indulgence that not only accepts the imperfections, contradictions and sometimes failures of existence, but embraces them almost tenderly. Perhaps Mudder's greatest strength lies in this artistic attitude: he shows us a world that, despite all its absurdity and melancholy, is imbued with a deep humanity - a humanity that reveals itself precisely in the loving acceptance of human shortcomings." (Annekathrin Kohout)
Adrian Mudder [*1986 in Delmenhorst] studied from 2008 to 2013 at the Braunschweig University of Art under Professor Olav Christopher Jenssen and Professor Friedemann von Stockhausen. He then completed his master class there with Professor Olav Christopher Jenssen until 2015. Awarded prizes and scholarships, Exhibitions in Germany and abroad, including a solo exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst and most recently at the Kunstverein Münsterland. His works are represented in collections at home and abroad, including the Cultural Center of Kraziai [LT] Kupferstichkabinett in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst. Adrian Mudder lives and works in Leipzig.
Galerie Leuenroth
Fahrgasse 15
60311 Frankfurt am Main
T. +49 175 561 76 54
E. info@galerieleuenroth.de
Opening hours:
Wed-Fri 1-6 p.m.
Sat 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.