Maike Freess’s artistic practice revolves around the human figure and its shifting relationship with memory, perception, and psychological experience. Working across drawing, sculpture, photography, video, and installation, she explores how personal history, social conditions, and collective events become embedded in the body. Her figures carry traces of these forces. They fragment, deform, multiply, and change, turning the body into a living surface where inner states and external realities meet.

Drawing lies at the heart of Freess’s practice. Her precise and highly controlled technique, often developed through fine white lines on black paper, gives her figures an extraordinary physical presence. At the same time, this precision opens onto images that gradually escape rational order. Bodies split open, contain other bodies or objects, develop unfamiliar structures, or extend beyond their natural limits. Faces shift between recognition and distortion; skin dissolves into proliferating forms, while bones and internal structures emerge through the surface. The clarity of the drawing becomes a way of reaching beneath the visible body and giving form to something less tangible.

This tension between control and disturbance runs throughout her work. The careful movement of the hand produces figures caught between different states: waking and dreaming, memory and present experience, familiarity and estrangement. Hands and fingers reach, balance, touch, and test the space they inhabit, suggesting a tentative search for orientation and contact. Repetition and displacement introduce another sense of time: multiple limbs evoke movement or an afterimage, while successive gestures suggest an action unfolding across several moments. The body appears caught in transition, carrying one physical state into another.

Memory forms a central thread in Freess’s work. She approaches it as a fluid process, continually reshaped by emotion, perception, desire, and the present moment. Her idea of “corrected memory” describes this instability with particular precision. Memories are reconstructed each time they return; details disappear, others become amplified, and new connections emerge. This process extends beyond individual experience into familial, generational, and collective histories. Fears, behaviours, expectations, and unresolved experiences can be inherited, creating a tension between what has been given to us and the desire for autonomy.

The surrounding world leaves its mark as well. Social conventions, political events, collective anxieties, and structures of control become visible through altered bodies and constrained gestures. Psychological experience acquires a physical language: a body under pressure bends, fragments, encloses itself, or develops unexpected forms. Freess gives these transformations a tangible presence, allowing private states to resonate with wider social and historical conditions.

Her cuts and paper cut-outs make this fragmentation physically present. Initially developed as strips of cut paper extending the drawing into space, they interrupt the continuity of the image, creating gaps, shifts, and competing viewpoints. In later works, displaced sections of portraits evoke fractured reflections, where several versions of the same face coexist. Identity becomes multiple and unstable, shaped by the position from which it is seen.

The cut also changes the act of looking. Parts of the image disappear behind an interruption while others project towards the viewer. What can be seen depends on position, movement, and distance, requiring the viewer to navigate between fragments and reconstruct connections. This principle extends into her installations, where drawings, cuts, sculptures, video, and architectural elements enter into direct relationships. Lines cross from one surface into another, sculptural forms occupy the surrounding space, and interventions on walls and floors alter the viewer’s path through the exhibition. The gallery becomes part of the composition.

Photography and video extend these concerns through their relationship with time and the recorded image. Freess’s photographs often place constructed figures within ambiguous environments, creating a tension between the apparent reality of the scene and its psychological charge. Video introduces duration, repetition, reversal, and altered speed, allowing an event to shift meaning as it unfolds. Time becomes another material through which perception and memory can be transformed.

Sculpture gives these concerns another physical dimension. Freess often places sculptural figures at the centre of an exhibition, where they establish relationships with the surrounding works and architecture. Clothing, coverings, restraints, enclosed structures, and altered anatomies suggest vulnerability, regulation, confinement, and imposed behaviour. Materials associated with intimacy or protection can simultaneously evoke restriction and care, placing the body between personal impulses and the structures that shape it.

There is a distinctly human ambivalence in these figures. They can appear vulnerable, absurd, solemn, or quietly humorous, sometimes within the same work. Freess allows these contradictory qualities to coexist, approaching the human condition through instability and transformation. Agency and constraint, individuality and inheritance, vulnerability and resistance remain entangled.

Across her practice, the human figure becomes a mutable structure through which personal, inherited, and collective realities emerge. A portrait can unfold into an anatomy of memory; a recognisable body can become a landscape of psychological experience. The surreal qualities of the work remain closely connected to the realities that produce them, giving physical form to anxieties, memories, desires, and social pressures.

Drawing ultimately functions as a threshold between these states. Through its exceptional precision, Freess turns the surface of the image into a space where the visible meets the concealed, memory meets imagination, and individual experience meets collective history. Her figures remain suspended between recognition and estrangement, control and instability, vulnerability and resistance. Looking at them becomes an active process of reconstruction, shaped by both the image and the position from which it is encountered.

ARTWORKS HIGHLIGHTS

INSTALLATION VIEWS

Title: Theater of Soliloquy
Artists: Maike Freess
Location: Luisa Catucci Gallery, Allerstr. 38,  12049 Berlin
Curator: Luisa Catucci
Sep 4th – Nov 23rd, 2020

Title: Soliloquy
Artists: Maike Freess
Location: Luisa Catucci Contemporary, Brunnenstr 170, 10119 Berlin
Curator: Luisa Catucci
Ock 18th – Nov 23rd, 2024

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Her solo exhibitions span more than three decades and include Verhandlungsmasse (Matter of Negotiation), NAGEL auction – Repräsentanz Berlin, in collaboration with Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2022); Verhandlungsmasse (Matter of Negotiation), Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2022); Ball der Erben, Kulturhaus Karlshorst, Berlin, Germany (2021); Theater of Soliloquy, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020); In Abwesenheit des Willens II (In Absence of Will II), Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium (2020); In Abwesenheit des Willens, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany (2020); Gli Eredi Silenti, Federico Rui Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy, curated by Luisa Catucci (2018); Korrigierte Erinnerung, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany (2017); Une œuvre d’art au collège, Collège Charles Péguy / Collection FDAC de l’Essonne, Monsang-sur-Orge, France (2017); Transition, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain / MAMCS, Strasbourg, France (2016); Von blinder Gewissheit, Von der Heydt-Kunsthalle, Wuppertal, Germany (2015); Hypnotics, Joyce Gallery, Shanghai, China (2014); Das Blaue vom Himmel, Kunsthalle FRISCH – Halle am Wasser, Berlin, Germany (2011); Vacuum, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2011); Le Droit du Plus Fort, with A. Sorbelli, Y. Liver and R. Labastie, Les Salaisons, Romainville, France (2010); En Face le Pire Jusqu’à ce qu’il Fasse Rire, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2008); Der Tag Hat Keine Schatten, dna Berlin, Germany (2007); Hautnah, Pferdeställe Postfuhramt / ART FRANCE BERLIN, Berlin, Germany (2006); Insomnia, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2004); Hallucination, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva, Switzerland (2002); I Wish I Was Here, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2002); Art Brussels, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Brussels, Belgium (2002); Led by Pleasure – Multiply Drama, Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, and Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, Hérouville Saint-Clair, France (2001); Vous Dansez?, Institut Français de Berlin, Germany (2001); When the Sun Is Shining, You Can’t See the Stars, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2000); You Don’t Get Out of My Mind, Kunstraum Torstraße, Halle, Germany (1999); Tout Ira Bien, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (1998); Symptômes Naturels, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (1997); 38:2, Cité Descartes, Marne-la-Vallée, France (1996); X-People, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (1996); Spacecube, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Rouen, France (1996); Maike Freess – Installation, Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany (1995); Maike Freess – Installation, Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg, Germany (1995); Galerie der Stadt Halle, Germany (1994); Galerie Efté, Paris, France (1994); FIAP Jean Monnet, Paris, France (1993); Galerie am Wasserturm, Berlin, Germany (1993); Galerie Moderne Vergangenheit, Wiesbaden, Germany (1992).

Her group exhibitions include Being There, Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano, Italy (2023); 19th Asian Biennale Bangladesh, National Art Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2022); Arabesques / Métamorphose II: Freiheit, German-French Cultural Festival, Hamburg, Germany (2022); SALO X, Paris, France, curated by Laurent Quénéhen (2022); Mindscape, Artists Studios Yvonne Andreini, Berlin, Germany, curated by Luisa Catucci and Suzy Royal (2022); Vision und Schrecken der Moderne – Industrie und Künstlerischer Aufbruch, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2021); COV-ART, Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece (2021); Galeristes, Carreau du Temple, Paris, France, with Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium (2021, cancelled); Break That Wall, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium (2021); Salon de la Mort II, Galerie Christian Berst, Paris, France, curated by Laurent Quénéhen (2021); Art Cologne, with Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany (2020, cancelled); L’Anti-Chambre, Hôtel La Nouvelle République, Paris, France, curated by Marguerite Pilven and Alta Volta (2020); Und Wissen Sie Was? 2020!, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020); Positions Berlin Art Fair, Flughafen Tempelhof, with Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020); Salon de la Mort, Espace Bertant Grimont, Paris, France, curated by Laurent Quénéhen (2020); 8th Beijing International Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2019); Art Berlin, with Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2019); 1919–2019 / Die Sammlung des Von der Heydt-Museums im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2019); Paper Position Frankfurt, with Luisa Catucci Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany (2019); Paper, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium / Singapore (2019); SALO VII, Paris, France, curated by Laurent Quénéhen (2019); D’après les Contes du Jour et de la Nuit, Château de Miromesnil, France (2018); Flowers, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium / Singapore (2018); L’Inventaire, Vol. 8, FRAC Normandie Rouen, France (2018); Vom Winde Verweht, Ventilator, Berlin, Germany (2018); Bonjour Monsieur Magritte!, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium / Singapore (2017); GrandArt Milano, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Milan, Italy (2017); Kunstschorle, Ventilator, Berlin, Germany, curated by Axel Pahlavi (2017); SALO V, Galerie Episodique, Paris, France (2017); Intermezzo, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany (2016); L’Œil du Collectionneur / Focus 1: Être et à Voir, MAMCS, Strasbourg, France (2016); Fotografische Sammlung, Schloss Kummerow, Germany (2016); Drawing Now Paris, Focus – Maike Freess, Mazel Galerie, Paris, France (2016); Kunst findet Stadt, Halle/Saale, Germany (2016); SALO IV, Paris, France (2016); Engagements – Collectionner/Partager, Musée des Beaux-Arts Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, France (2015); Fabriquer le Dessin, FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2015); L’Amour, la Mort et le Diable, Galerie des Hospices, Limoges, France (2015); Le Noir & Blanc en Couleur, Centre de Cultures et de Ressources-LIZIÈRES, France (2015); Korrektur – Wuppertaler Performance-Nacht, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2015); Art Fair Cologne, Mazel Galerie, Germany (2015); Blackout, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium (2015); Busan Biennale, Main Exhibition, Busan Museum of Art, South Korea (2014); Die Nacht der Philosophie, Maison de France / Institut Français, Berlin, Germany (2014); Von 1900 bis Heute, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2014); Elles, Mazel Galerie, Brussels, Belgium (2014); Kentucky Karaoke, DMNDKT Project Space, Berlin, Germany (2014); De Leur Temps 4, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes / HAB Galerie, France (2014); Encore, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2014); Soon, Galerie Mazel, Brussels, Belgium (2013); Code Noir, FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2013); Drawing Now, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France (2013); SALO du dessin érotique, Les Salaisons, Romainville, France (2013); Liebe, Tod + Teufel, Von der Heydt-Kunsthalle, Wuppertal, Germany (2012); Winter Group Show, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2012); Win/Win, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Leipzig, Germany (2012); Loopingstar, Video(art)festival Saarbrücken / Forbach, Germany / France (2012); Mine de Poupées, Semblant d’Humains, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Bourget, France (2011); Après / Christian Boltanski + Guests, MAC VAL, France (2010); Quand l’Enfant Paraît, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bernay, France (2010); Viennafair, Galerie Eva Hober, Vienna, Austria (2010); Figure-toi!, FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2010); International Triennale of Sculpture, Poznań, Poland (2009); FIAC Paris, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2009); Hair du Temps, Galerie d’Art du Conseil Général, Aix-en-Provence, France (2009); Salon du Dessin Contemporain, Paris, France (2009); Écrire au Féminin, FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2008); Auf des Messers Schneide, Collection Jean & Christina Mairet, Berlin, Germany (2008); FIAC Paris, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2008); Salon du Dessin Contemporain, Paris, France (2008); A Song of Love & Living for Living, Centre Culturel Français, Tbilisi, Georgia (2008); L’Image de la Femme dans l’Art Contemporain, FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2007); FIAC Paris, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France (2007); Art Toronto, with DNA Galerie, Toronto, Canada (2007); De Leur Temps 2, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Grenoble, France (2007); La Gastronomie dans l’Art, Artcurial, Paris, France (2007); Vivre pour Vivre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK (2007); Signes de Nuit, International Video Festival, Paris, France (2007); Traits pour Traits, Artothèque de Caen, France (2006); Please Wait, FRAC Île-de-France / Immanence / INHA, Paris, France (2006); Art Brussels, with Galerie Charlotte Moser, Brussels, Belgium (2006); Amour, Gloire & Beauté, Espace Art et Liberté, Charenton-le-Pont, France (2006); Vivre pour Vivre, Galerie SAD, Moscow, Russia (2006); Love Video, Kunstverein Mataró, Barcelona, Spain (2006); FIAC Paris, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Paris, France (2005); Dessins et Dérivés, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2005); Nuit Blanche, Paris, France (2005); Femmes de Toujours, Pôle International de la Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France (2005); À Table(s), Domaine Départemental de Chamarande, France (2005); Le Mélange des Genres, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen / FRAC Haute-Normandie, France (2005); Detroit Video Festival, Museum of New Art / MONA, Detroit, USA (2005); Art Brussels, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Brussels, Belgium (2005); Un Chant d’Amour, Cinéma de Barbizon, France (2005); De Leur Temps, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing, France (2004); Innocence and Violence, Galerie Museum Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy (2004); Festival Cine Pobre, Gibara, Cuba (2004); 5ème Festival des Films International, Izmir, Turkey (2004); Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium (2004); Mon Manège à Moi, Galerie ÉOF, Paris, France (2004); Un Chant d’Amour, Au Divan du Monde, Paris, France (2004); Galerie CAD / Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia (2004); Club “Par”, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2004); Backup Award, International Festival for New Media in Film, Weimar, Germany (2003); Des Œuvres, un Lieu, FRAC Île-de-France / Le Plateau, Paris, France (2003); Romance, Galerie CAD, Moscow, Russia (2003); Nuit Blanche, École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France (2003); Nachtzeichen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2003); Art Brussels, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Brussels, Belgium (2003); Signes de Nuit, Cinéma Balzac, Paris, France (2003); Vos Papiers!, Le Manoir, Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland (2003); Black Box, Video Festival Düsseldorf, Germany (2003); Michiganow, Michigan Institute for the Arts, USA (2002); Citoyens Bohèmes, Le Printemps, Paris, France (2002); The Playtime Festival, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa (2002); Les 7èmes Vidéogrammes, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France (2002); Group Show, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva, Switzerland (2002); Detroit Video Festival, Museum of New Art / MONA, Detroit, USA (2002); Femmes, etc., Abbaye du Ronceray, Angers, France (2001); Las 24 Horas, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2001); Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, France/Germany (2001); Natürlichkünstlich, Leipziger Jahresausstellung, Germany (2001); Art Paris, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2001); CYNETart, Medienkulturzentrum Pentacon, Dresden, Germany (2001); Artetvitrines, Paris, France (2001); Carnaval, Polylogue 25, Paris, France (2000); Connexions, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (2000); ZWISCHEN DEN ZEITEN 2000, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1999); CYNETart, KunstHaus Dresden, Germany (1999); Art Paris, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, France (1999); Wonderful Catch, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland (1999); Parcours de Sculpture en Île-de-France, FRAC Île-de-France / Fondation de Coubertin, Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, France (1999); Osaka Triennale, Osaka, Japan (1998); Art Brussels, Galerie Pierre Hallet, Brussels, Belgium (1998); St’Art 98, Strasbourg, France (1998); Plusieurs en Soi, Polylogue, Paris, France (1997); Résonance, ApARTé, Paris, France (1997); Skulptur Heute, Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland (1997); Kunstart 96, Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1996); Baignade Interdite, Seyssel, France (1996); L’Art dans les Chapelles, Bieuzy-les-Eaux, France (1996); Zeitgenössische Skulptur, Landeszentralbank Sachsen/Thüringen, Leipzig, Germany (1996); MANIF, Seoul, South Korea (1996); Biennale de la Sculpture Contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland (1996); Sculpture Contemporaine, Halle aux Toiles, Rouen, France (1996); Sculptures dans les Jardins, Parc de Tancoquagnet, France (1995); 1. Independent Art Fair, Naxos Union, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1994); Aspects de la Sculpture Contemporaine, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Clermont-Ferrand, France (1994); Sculptures en Écho, Lognes, France (1994); Kunst aus Halle/Saale, VEW AG, Dortmund, Germany (1994); Dessins, Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (1994); Europäische Kulturtage, Karlsruhe, Germany (1993); Schloss Mainau, Bundesministerium des Innern, Bonn, Germany (1992).

She has participated in major international biennials and triennials, including 19th Asian Biennale Bangladesh, National Art Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2022); 8th Beijing International Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2019); Busan Biennale, Main Exhibition, Busan Museum of Art, South Korea, artistic director Olivier Kaeppelin (2014); International Triennale of Sculpture, Zamek, Poznań, Poland (2009); International Osaka Triennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka, Japan (1998); Biennale de la Sculpture Contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland (1996).

Her awards and grants include the NEUSTART KULTUR grant from Stiftung Kunstfonds, the Bronze Prize at the Osaka Triennale, the Deutsche Telekom Prize, and the 1st Prize at Jeunes Artistes au FIAP in Paris. NEUSTART KULTUR Grant, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Berlin, Germany (2022); Honourable Mention, CYNETart, KunstHaus Dresden, Germany (2000); Prize, ZWISCHEN DEN ZEITEN 2000, DigitalArt Gallery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1999); Bronze Prize, Osaka Triennale, Osaka, Japan (1998); Grant, Stiftung Kulturfonds, Berlin, Germany (1997); Prize, Deutsche Telekom, Germany (1994); Grant, State of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (1994); Grant, Stiftung Kulturfonds, Berlin, Germany (1993); 1st Prize, Jeunes Artistes au FIAP, Paris, France (1992); Grant, Office franco-allemand pour la jeunesse, Bonn, Germany (1991).

Her work is held in public collections suche as Ludwig Collection, Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Germany (2020); Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France (2018); Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2016, 2014); COROART / Art Collection Coroplast, Wuppertal, Germany (2016); Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain / MAMCS, Strasbourg, France (2015); Kunstfonds, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany (2012); Collection du Fonds National d’Art Contemporain / FNAC, France (2009); FDAC de l’Essonne / Collection Chamarande, France (2004); Collection du Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain / FRAC Normandie, France (2003); Museum of New Art / MONA, Detroit, USA (2001); The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland (1999); Museum of Contemporary Art Osaka, Japan (1998); Kunst am Bau / Lukashof, Halle, Germany (1998); Collection du Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain / FRAC Île-de-France, France (1997); Art Collection Deutsche Bank, Halle/Saale, Germany (1995); Art Collection Planungsbüro PAH, Halle/Saale, Germany (1995); Art Collection Norddeutsche Landesbank, Germany (1994); Art Collection STRABAG, Leipzig, Germany (1992).

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