Leonhard Hurzlmeier｜All Around the House

Curators｜Eli Zagury & Tamar Arnon

Lin & Lin Gallery is honored to announce the opening of contemporary German artist Leonhard Hurzlmeier's new solo exhibition, All Around the House, this April. Curated by independent British curators Tamar Arnon & Eli Zagury, the exhibition takes the people and events occurring around a "house" as its central imagery. The artist employs simplified abstract forms and bright colors to depict various characters moving insude and outside of the house, capturing their contemplative expressions. Between humorous iconography and ambiguous gazes, he shapes a visual aesthetic that is vivid yet restrained, full of visual tension yet harboring subtle implications.

In his paintings, Hurzlmeier adheres to a rigorous set of mathematical rules, meticulously arranging lines and color fields through specific arcs, angles, and proportions. Building upon the Cubist approach to deconstructing forms and the geometric order of the Bauhaus, he further explores the relationship between color and form. The juxtaposition of geometric shapes with a primary palette of yellow, green, blue, and red—under the contrast of strong tones—instead flattens the three-dimensional structure of the forms themselves. This directs the focus toward the silhouettes and gestures of the characters, creating his unique humorous imagery and visual vocabulary.

Meanwhile, the half-body portraits presented in profile are mostly placed against minimalist backgrounds constructed of large color blocks, forming a flat and serene spatial field akin to a collage. The artist uses delicate brushwork to outline facial details, clothing, and individual characteristics. Through the arrangement of figures' postures and the positioning of objects, he highlights the characters' identities while guiding the viewer's gaze beyond the canvas following the subject's stance, prompting an exploration of the stories behind the roles. The characters captured by the artist, whether looking away or staring directly at the viewer, exude a sense of detached alienation amidst the vivid tones, interlacing a subtle narrative tension with multiple interpretations when meeting the viewer's gaze.

The works in this exhibition unfold through a dialectic between various characters “all around” the house. Through the reorganization of geometric forms, Hurzlmeier reinterprets the relationship between figures and space, transforming portraits from mere representations of realistic objects into visual symbols that carry the conditions and relationships of contemporary humanity. Beneath the smooth, bright, and airy surface of the paintings lie more complex and contradictory emotions and realities: the longing of those inside of the house for the outside world, and the desire of those outside to return to the house. This tension between the internal and external, generated through the metaphor of the "house," constitutes the profound meaning of the works—that truth is often hidden behind a dazzling facade.

Leonhard Hurzlmeier was born in 1983 in Starnberg, Germany. He lives and works in Munich, Germany. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, from 2004 – 2011. Selected solo exhibitions include: All Around the House, LIN & LIN Gallery (2026); Women at the Wel, Vigo Gallery (2025), London; Edenism, Vigo Gallery (2025), London; Kissing Shores, Vigo Gallery (2023), London; Settenale, Martina Tauber Fine Art, Munich (2022); It’s the Analogy, Baby, Kunz Galerie, Munich (2021); Told Tales, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York City (2019); All New Women, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York City (2017); 13 Portraits, Galerie Andreas Grimm, Munich (2012). Recent group exhibitions include Cool Mist, Galerie Knust Kunz, Knokke (2022); Lost in Paradise, Martina Tauber Fine Art, Munich (2021); The Last Unicorn, Prediger Museum, Schwäbisch Gmünd (2020); Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich (2019); Revenue de Vacances, Martina Tauber Fine Arts, Munich (2019); 10 Years, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York City (2018); Locus Lapis, Martina Tauber Fine Arts; and Odeeh, Berlin (2018). In 2018, Hatje Cantz published Neue Frauen, a monograph of the artists' work.