Since 2004, Florian Baudrexel has been creating large-format reliefs made of cardboard, works which he understands as rhetorically-charged figures that confront viewers in their own language. The dimensions of these large-format pieces always refer back to that of the human; the reliefs are equal, or sometimes even oversized, counterparts to the viewer. The reduced color scheme of these beige, black, and white works emphasizes their concentration on line and form.
Cardboard, as a material that is available everywhere, ecologically sound, and perishable, facilitates an intuitive and direct work process.

One could always find small, architecturally-informed models in Florian Baudrexel’s studio, some of which could be seen as early as 2012 in the form of wall installations featured in his solo exhibition at the Hamburger Kunstverein. They appeared like the finger exercises of a virtuoso, variations that accompanied the artist in his daily work and revealed an almost inexhaustible inner repertoire of formal gestures, spatial constellations, and architectural or machine-like volume combinations.

During the Covid lockdown, Baudrexel made use for the first time of food cartons from the supermarket and his small models became imbued with color. Out of this work with models resulted his Cardbirds, which the artist exhibited in his most recent show at Linn Lühn. Since then, the artist has transferred this approachable yet fragile colorfulness onto a wide repertoire of formats and sizes.

Baudrexel is always simultaneously at work on models, medium- and large-format works, as well as polygonal and rectangular pieces. While the small-format Cardbirds begin with color and from there find their form, this process is reversed in the larger works. Here, the artist begins with the form, assembling both prefabricated and new parts into an expressive ensemble, to which he gives color in a final step. The confidence inherent in the originality of the formal gestures is underpinned by this coloring, performed as though granting them names. By the time the reliefs take on their final appearance, they have undergone numerous processes of change and modification. As an ultimate gesture, the coloring unifies the relief and lends it its unique character through an interweaving of form and color.

The spectrum of this free play of color and form in his current works can be seen now for the first time in the exhibition Brace, featuring 12 new pieces.

Florian Baudrexel (*1968, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. His works have been shown in numerous exhibtions at international institutions, such as Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, Germany, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany. He is represented in several international institutional collections, such as The Margulies Collection, Miami, FL, Collection of Jill and Peter Krauss, New York, NY, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany, and Hessische Landesbank, Frankfurt, Germany. His solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Hamburg, Kunstverein Oldenburg, and Kunstverein Reutlingen were accompanied by comprehensive publications.