Matthias Gálvez is one of the most distinctive voices in Berlin's realistic-figurative painting. His works understand proximity not as a narrative motif, but as an experiential state.
Image gallery
Matthias Gálvez im Studio
Matthias Gálvez, Eudaimonia, 2025, 180x220cm, Öl auf Leinwand
The depicted figures enter into a direct relationship with one another—and simultaneously with the viewer. Group scenes and portraits coalesce into constellations of intense psychological and physical presence.
The situations appear familiar in their everydayness, yet remain open and ambivalent. Gestures, glances, and postures generate tensions that cannot be definitively resolved. The pictorial spaces are composed of fragmented, partly abstract elements that shift and unsettle the perception of what is depicted.
Proximity here arises not from classical intimacy, but from confrontation. The figures assert themselves as counterparts—directly, unprotected, and without any mediating distance.
The exhibition primarily features recent works from 2025.
