Gregor Hildebrandt makes great use of pre-recorded cassette tapes as material in his pictures and installations. The tapes are applied directly onto canvases and photographic prints and in room-sized installations. Although Hildebrandt’s work makes formal reference to Minimalism, the addition of a great number of subjective and autobiographical citations actually deliberately repudiates this strategy.
For Hildebrandt, the cassette tape as artistic medium, especially in its original function of storage medium, fulfils an important function: it enables the artist to add a further “invisible” dimension to his pictures. Playing with perception in this way is a major characteristic of his work; the picture is completed in the head of the viewer.
If the contemplation of his art incorporates the heterogeneous cosmos of Gregor Hildebrandt’s references to music, film, literature and, last but not least, art history, his works turn out to be complex montages, in which pictorial associations from different spheres combine and interpenetrate. Hildebrandt employs the material of his every-day environment without aesthetic or theoretical inhibition and playfully links aspects of conceptual art and minimal art with his personal life and experience of pop culture.
Gregor Hildebrandt was born in 1974 in Bad Homburg and currently lives and works in Berlin. He is a Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
Notable institutional solo exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Rostock, DE (2024) | MAZ Museo de Art de Zapopan, Zapopan, MX (2023/24) | Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, CZ (2022/23) | Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin, DE (2021) | Villa Schöningen, Potsdam, DE (202) | G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig, DE (2020) | Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, DE (2018) | Kunstverein Heppenheim, DE (2016) | Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE (2016) | Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE (2016) | Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken, DE (2015) | Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, NL(2012) | Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, DE (2009) | Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, US (2008).
Hildebrandt was part of numerous institutional group exhibitions in venues such as the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, DE (2023) | Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, DE (2023) | The Margulies Collection, Miami, US (2022) | Neues Museo, Nuremberg, DE (2022) | Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, DE (2022) | Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg, Halle, DE (2020) | KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf, DE (2019) | The National Museum of Art of Bucharest, Bucharest, RO (2017) | Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, DE (2016) | 21er Haus, Vienna, AT (2016) | The Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, LV (2016) | Haus der Kunst, Munich, DE (2016) | Museum of the Moving Image, New York, US (2015) | Bass Museum of Art, Miami, US (2014) | Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR (2014) | Museum Marta Herford, DE (2014) | Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2012) | Castello Rivara, IT (2011) and many more.
He exhibited at the 14th Lyon Biennial, FR (2017) and the Sculpture Triennial, Bingen, DE (2017).
Works by Gregor Hildebrandt are in the public collections of the ASE Foundation, Shanghai, CN | Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, DE | Burger Collection, Zurich, CH and Honk Kong, HK | Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR | Collection Jill & Peter Kraus, New York, US | Collection Robert and Renée Drake, Wassenaar, NL | Collection Rosenblum Projects, Paris, FR | Fundación Hortensia Herrero, Valencia, ES | K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, HK | Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, DE | Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, CZ | Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, DE | Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Stuttgart, DE | Pat and Juan Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires, AR | Rubell Family Collection, Miami, US | Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, DE | Sammlung Museum van Bommel van Dam, NL | Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, DE | Sammlung Südhausbau, München, DE | Sammlung Wemhöner, Berlin/Herford, DE | Sammlung zeitgenössische Kunst des Bundes, DE | The Margulies Collection, Miami, US | Vanhaerents Art Collection, BE | Yuz Museum Shanghai / Budi Tek Collection, Shanghai, CN
