Gregor Hildebrandt

Gregor Hildebrandt (b. 1974, Bad Homburg, Germany, lives and works in Berlin, Germany) is a Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Hildebrandt is recognized for his innovative use of analog storage media, particularly cassette tapes and vinyl records, in crafting visually compelling and conceptually rich artworks. He transforms these obsolete technologies into captivating pieces that explore themes of memory, time, and the physicality of sound. Drawing from the histories of literature, cinema, and pop culture, Hildebrandt probes into both individual and collective memory.

Institutional solo exhibitions include Kunsthalle Rostock; MAZ Museo de Art de Zapopan; Kunsthalle Praha, Prague; Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin; G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig; Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; mumok, Vienna; Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken and Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Hildebrandt has also participated in group exhibitions in institutions such as Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Neues Museum, Nürnberg; Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen; Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg; Daimler Contemporary Berlin; Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Miami Art Museum; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Kunsthalle Andratx, Mallorca; Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin; Kunstverein Heppenheim; Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris and Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Hildebrandt's works are held in the collections of Berlinische Galerie,; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Kunsthalle Praha, Prague; Kunstpalast Düsseldorf; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Museum van Bommel van Dam, AD Venlo; Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Miami; Mercedes-Benz Kunstsammlung, Stuttgart; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken; Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesregierung, Bonn; Philara Collection, Düsseldorf; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brüssel; Burger Collection, Zürich; Yuz Collection, Shanghai; Sammlung Peter Marino, New York; Kunstsammlung Tiffany, New York; Fundación Hortensia Herrero, Spain; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Sammlung Jill and Peter Kraus, New York; ASE Foundation, Shanghai; Tiffany Art Collection, New York and Sammlung Peter Marino.

+ CV

+ Website

The art of Gregor Hildebrandt (born 1974) can best be described by the concept of
conceptual image creation, although this too opens up a conceptual pigeonhole
in which the artist is difficult to categorize.

Since 1999, Gregor Hildebrandt has been working with cassette tape and since 2003 with
video tape as his preferred material. In closely adjacent strips, canvases are
completely or partially covered, paper works and sculptures are created, or even
entire house walls and rooms are draped. The coated surface of the tapes
creates a reflection of light and the surrounding space, which never makes the image
appear the same. The austerity of Hildebrandt's works only seemingly evokes
associations with formal reductions known since the 1960s. The minimal in Hildebrandt's work never appears value-free, but is instead poetically charged. In the painting "The Carny N.C. (San Michele)" (274 x 447 cm, 2004), for example, the silhouette of the cemetery island San Michele of Venice is outlined in the lower third. While in this area the raw canvas is visible and the island with surrounding water is imagined, Hildebrandt has covered the upper part of the sky completely with cassette tape. The tape here, as always in the works of Gregor Hildebrandt, is not merely a material, but also a carrier of meaning insofar as the tapes are always carriers of music. In this case, it is the song "The Carny" by the Australian singer Nick Cave. The immateriality of the music intertwines in its meaning with the subject of the canvas painting.
The conceptual in Hildebrandt's work is evident precisely in this questioning of visibility. The idea takes the place of concrete realization, of pure illustration.

The viewer is no longer fixed on mere perception, but finds themselves challenged to reflect on the open form according to their own ideas. This individual appropriation in Hildebrandt's work, however, never leads to a dissolution of the materiality of the work, but ties it back to the form of the panel painting.

Gregor Hildebrandt b. 1974

Hidden memories

Sailing with Gregor Hildebrandt

20 Years – An Anniversary Show