History draughtsman. One of the most recognised Swiss artists, Marc Bauer has been creating socially and politically engaged art for more than twenty years now. He appropriates contemporary history and focuses on its dramas and excesses, in order to challenge the resulting ideology of power and human behaviours.
Marc Bauer addresses these issues by creating fragmentary narrative threads in which the gaps remind us that memory is invariably selective. The artist combines personal and collective history and develops powerful narratives in which the text engages in a dialogue with the figures. Murals, animations, prints or graphite compositions applied to walls: the art of Marc Bauer is a theatre laid bare, in which mankind presents itself in its most terrifying and profound form. (JEJ)
Marc Bauer (b. 1975, Geneva) lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. He studied at the Ecole supérieure d’art visuel in Geneva (HEAD – Genève) and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.
He has shown his works in numerous solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, notably at the Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2020); Berlinische Galerie (2020); Drawing Room, London (2019); Museum Folkwang, Essen (2014); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2013); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2011); MAMCO, Geneva (2010).
And notable group exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2020); Migros Museum, Zurich (2019); Kunsthaus Zurich (2019); Biennale of Sydney (2018); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2015); Liverpool Biennial (2014).
His works are in major public and private collections, including the Berlinische Galerie, Kunsthaus, Zürich; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Migros Museum, Zurich; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.
Marc Bauer is tenured lecturer at the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK). In 2001, 2005, and 2006 he was awarded the Swiss Art Award. He is the laureate of the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim 2020.
Marc is the winner of the GASAG Kunstpreis 2020. This award will be presented in September 2020 for the sixth time in collaboration with the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.
Marc Bauer was Fellow at Istituto Svizzero in 2005-06.