Eric Mangen
February 19, 2026 – April 11, 2026
forever wildchild
Heike Strelow Gallery
Eric Mangen opens his first solo exhibition in Germany at Galerie Heike Strelow on February 26, 2026. The new body of work centers on gestural painting. The title Forever Wild Child defines attitude and method. Painting as risk. Painting as action.
Mangen's approach to abstraction has its roots in graffiti of the late 1990s.
From there, his path leads directly to the tradition of action painting. Movement, body, and material shape the pictorial space.
The canvas becomes the site of action. In art history, this work connects to positions such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. Here too, the image emerges through execution. Not from a plan. Not from a preliminary drawing.
But from decision in the moment.
Artist, material, and motif meet as equal partners. Composition is followed by destruction, reduction, or reconstruction.
Each layer carries traces of the previous intervention. Nothing remains untouched. Forever Wild Child marks no conclusion.
It defines a state. Painting as a continuous attempt. Painting as a test of courage. Painting as an open process.
Heike Strelow Gallery
Lange Str. 31
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Opening hours
Wed–Fri 12 noon–6 p.m.
Sat 12 noon–3 p.m.