Using a fluorescent color palette, Franz Ackermann combines street maps, facades and landscapes from his wandering around the globe with abstract elements that destabilize the gaze and give the works a vertiginous velocity. Paintings and drawings exceed the traditional supports, embodying photographs, objects, wood and steel structures. In ample, vividly colored panels, Ackermann seems to incorporate the scale of advertisements and mass communications.
Recent solo exhibitions include Our Houses, Galerie Templon, Brussels, Belgium (2019); Die Aufwertunug der Lage, Meyer Riegger, Berlin, Germany (2018); Come On, Dirimart, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); Mental Maps, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (2014); Franz Ackermann: Hills and Doubts, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2013). He has also participated in the group shows Germany Is Not an Island: Acquisitions 2012 – 2016, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2018); Memory Palace, White Cube, London, UK (2018) and Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century, Ingram Gallery, Nashville, USA (2018).
Ackermann’s work has been included in important public collections, such as Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, USA; Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany; Elipse Foundation, Alcoitão, Portugal; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France; Galerie fur Zeitgenössische Kunst; Leipzig, Germany; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany; Museo d’Arte Contemporaneo Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, USA; Sammlung Boros, Berlin, Germany and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus & Kunstbau, Munich, Germany.