Maximilian Kirmse (*1986 Berlin) lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig and the Düsseldorf Art Academy. He completed his master’s degree with Professor Astrid Klein in 2015.
Kirmse’s paintings and drawings portray everyday life in urban spaces, their inhabitants and architectural features. Berlin and Schöneberg in particular serve as an inspiration and starting point. In Kirmse’s often colourful pictorial worlds, alienation and anonymity are not always the most obvious associations. In more recent works, the phenomena of loneliness and individualisation already announced by Georg Simmel in the course of urbanisation at the beginning of the 20th century becomes much clearer through gloomier, melancholic tones. At the same time, however, Kirmse’s oevre also draws from moments of coming together, love in the big city and the life of the artist himself.
Maximilian Kirmse’s works were part of various institutional exhibitions, including Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Museum Wiesbaden; Kunsthalle Bozen, Bolzano and are part of collections, such as the Collection of Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich | Pinakothek der Moderne; Collection of the Kunstfonds des Freistaates Sachen; Sammlung Haus N, Kiel & Athens; Hort Collection, NYC.
Born in Berlin / geboren in Berlin
Lives and works in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany / lebt und arbeitet in Berlin und Leipzig, Deutschland
Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Meisterschüler, Prof. Astrid Klein
Art Academy Düsseldorf, Diploma, Prof. Andreas Schulze
Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Prof. Astrid Klein and Prof. Oliver Kossack
Scholarship, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Scholarship, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
2024
MAXIMILIAN KIRMSE – BERLIN MON AMOUR, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
“RAUM FÜR PHANTASIEVOLLE AKTIONEN. Neupräsentation der Sammlung” Kunstmuseum Bonn
‘EMOZONI’, Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin
Kissers Kissing on Kudamm‘, James Fuentes OVR, New York
‘Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland’, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, GER
Kunst am Bau’, curated by Hans-Jürgen Hafner, Gunter Reski & Marcus Weber, Berlin, GER
‘Routen‘, Manana Bold, Offenbach, GER
‘Bright Light‘, curated by Domenico de Chirico, Gussglashalle, Berlin, GER
Gallery Galerie Galería: Good Weather (North Little Rock), Franz Kaka (Toronto), LOYAL (Stockholm), Galería Mascota (CDMX), Sans Titre (Paris), Studioli (Rome), Tatjana Pieters (Gent), Jack Barrett Gallery, New York, USA
‘Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland’, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz / Museum Gunzenhauser
‘AUGUST’, Philipp Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin
‘AMAZONI’, Philipp Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin (solo)
‘Don`t come in’, a group show curated by Anna Lucia Nissen and Alex Rathbone
‘Artwork in the Dark’, Auktionsevent, Salon, Berlin
‘WIN/WIN’, Ankäufe der Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Halle 14, Leipzig
‘interzoni’, soloshow at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
‘Facetten des Daseins’, Fidschi Fischer, Maximilian Kirmse, Oliver Russman and a speech by Florian Hesselbarth
‘Neue Kamellen aus der Kupferkanne’, Philipp Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin
Ausstellung der Meisterschüler*innen der HGB 2017, Leipzig
Groupshow, with Maximilian Arnold, Ronny Bulik, Sebastian Burger, Nadira Husain, Maximilian Kirmse, Przemek Pyszczek, Katharina Schilling, Galerie Tobias Naehring, Leipzig
‘VOL. 3: NOTHING TO HIDE, A GROUP SHOWABOUT THE FEMALE BODY, SEX AND EROTICISM.’, Sans Titre (2016), Paris, France
‘online feature for the white shoulder’ with Fidschi Fischer
BÜLOW ECKE STEINMETZ soloshow at real positive, Köln
‘Corriger la Fortune’, Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin
Material Art Fair, Sans Titre, CDMX, MEX
‘OFF 2’, Kunsthaus Essen, Essen
‘Comedy Club 2’ featuring: Katherine Botten, Patrick Eicke, Armen Eloyan, Nschotschi Haslinger, Maximilian Kirmse, Aidan Koch, Clemens Reinecke, Tanja Ritterbex, Benny Van den Meulengracht-Vrancx
‘Maximilian Kirmse, Einer dieser Freitage’, Berlin Review on KubaParis
SAMMLUNG SIMONOW, Berlin
Sammlung Simonow, Adler, Düsseldorf
SAMMLUNG SIMONOW, Kunsthalle Bozen, Italy
‘Group Show V’, Galerie Alexander Levy, Berlin
‘bbo bbo (뽀뽀)’, with FIDSCHI FISCHER, Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig
‘TERMINATOR HIGH’, with Felix Zocher, HKDB, Duisburg Abschluss, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
‘Das ist alles deine Schulze’, Philara Projektraum, Düsseldorf
‘copy and re:peat’, Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig
‘Seeds of Colour’, UPON PAPER SPACE, Berlin
‘Another Brick in the Wall’, with Robert Brambora, Jens Einhorn and Georg Weißbach,C.Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Dresden
‘Copy and Re:peat’, BKS GARAGE, Copenhagen, Denmark
‘KRISTALLINE (LULU)’with Robert Brambora, Jens Einhorn and Fabian Kuntzsch, A100, Düsseldorf
‘Die Weisse Massai’, with Robert Brambora, Jens Einhorn and Georg Weißbach, Galerie Matthias Kleindienst, Leipzig(KATALOG)
‘Natur 3D’, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig
‘Wir belohnen Sie’, Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig
‘Empathie Faszinatie’, with Inga Kerber & Matthias Sommerer, HGB Leipzig
‘Hochdruck an der HGB’, curated by Oliver Kossack, HGB Leipzig
‘Big Piece’, Herbstrundgang Baumwollspinnerei Leipzig Arme Seelen, curated by Oliver Kossack, HGB Leipzig
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München in der Pinakothek
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Sammlung des Kunstfonds des Freistaates Sachsen