We are delighted to announce the first solo exhibition in our gallery space of Cologne painter Heiner Binding. Since the 1980s the artist has pursued a path that has produced a dense and consistent body of work. We are showing the most recent works from this oeuvre.

Heiner Binding’s works demand of the viewer extreme concentration and the willingness to embark on an inner journey. Because some of his non-representational paintings and drawings are created over long periods of time, are often subjected to repeated reworking, which can be gradual or minimal, to perfect the character of the piece. The artist says of this process: “A picture must sometimes be an impertinence, a thicket, even, in which you can lose your way; in any case it must trickle or seep its way into your mind and while painting it you must have the ludicrous feeling that both everything and nothing at all depends on it.”

For Binding, a work is finished when it no longer expects anything from him, that is, when it has fully taken on a life of its own. And that state is achieved only by engaging in an ongoing dialogue with and investigation of the material and the organization of the surfaces. These surfaces are like membranes that allow for the spaces “in front of” and “behind” to merge osmotically, capturing the thoughts, reflections and sentiments about the existential conditions of human life in the non-objectivity. The before/behind in the paintings and drawings creates an expansive space.

Yet despite all complexity theses works have a self-evident, accessible quality about them, like a foreign sound that nevertheless seems familiar. In recent years, Heiner Binding has begun creating assemblages that extend his painting more prominently into physical space. Some of these works are chopped off or set at right angles, sometimes also exposing the back of the canvas to view. All of this is imbued with a tremendous sense of freedom, a freedom that is also related to the materials used. In addition to the classical canvas-on-stretcher-frame support the artist also deploys printed fabrics, wooden found pieces objects, and construction staples and nails, which help him to conquer the two-dimensionality of the painting, allowing it to enter the realm of the 3D object.

Heiner Binding was born in 1958 in Tuttlingen and studied art from 1980 to 1985 at the academy in Karlsruhe, with Per Kirkeby and Georg Baselitz, among others. In addition to his work as a painter Binding also holds lectures and has authored numerous writings. Heiner Binding is also a great Jazz aficionado.
Binding’s works are represented in many public and private collections, including Kolumba and Museum Ludwig in Cologne. In the fall of 2024, the Kleinheinrich-Verlag in Münster published a comprehensive monograph of his work. Editor: Stefan Kraus.