Markus Vater

Markus Vater was born in Düsseldorf in 1970. He grew up in the Eifel. Later he studied Fine Art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Royal College of Art in London. He had shows with Vilma Gold, Timothy Taylor, Anthony d'Offay, Union Gallery and Centre of Attention in London, at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Museum Gertsch in Switzerland and more recently at Sprengel Museum in Hannover.

“Markus Vater’s work is diverse and resists vehemently any categorisation: seemingly naive line drawings and animations exist beside fine, detail rich portrait drawings, paintings, as well as photos and videos. Language plays an important role repeatedly, either as poignant titles or as text that is part of the work or that becomes the work itself. Markus Vater’s art wants to mobilise our mental activity in various directions. His work is occupied with the big questions that face human kind, like the apocalypse or vulnerabilities of human civilisation. But it also gives space for one's own associations and stimulates new and unexpected answers to existential questions.” (Beat Wismer)