Magnus Plessen Hamburg, Germany, b. 1967

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Magnus Plessen is a German artist best known for a painting style that combines additive and subtractive techniques, employing both brush and palette-knife and a plethora of materials, including tape, paint, and collage.

Plessen's paintings transit fluidly between abstraction and representation. Using a diverse range of painterly methods and dynamic compositions, his works are studies on perception, structure, material and transience. He aims to capture momentary emotion rather than reality. Without backgrounds, figures slip in and out of focus, either static or caught in a blurred rush of movement. 

Plessen’s solo exhibitions include the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Massachusetts; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Espace 315 - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; White Cube, London; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, North Rhine-Westphalia; K21, Düsseldorf, and MoMA PS1, New York, among others. He has participated in many group exhibitions internationally including Museum Serralves, Porto; MoMA, New York; the Goetz Collection, Munich, and the Venice Biennale.