Als wir noch die Wahl hatten
| Height | 50 cm |
|---|---|
| Width | 40 cm |
| Length/Depth | 2 cm |
Series: 'people'
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Year of creation: 2024
The painting is hand-signed on the reverse and mounted on a homemade stretcher frame
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Background:
The painting ‘choice?’ is a visual distillation of that seemingly banal, yet deeply politicised question: ‘Is the glass half full or half empty?’ What interests me about this saying is not so much its psychological punchline as its use as a projection screen – in a social climate that is becoming increasingly polarised and binary in its thinking.
The vessel at the centre of the picture is roughly drawn, almost childlike. The lines are shaky and imprecise, as if the outline of the vessel were trying to evade its function as a fixed frame. The bright orange surface appears almost aggressively optimistic – a choice of colour that defies doubt and yet, through the question posed within the glass, undermines it precisely: choice?
The liquid within – blue, opaque, structurally unstable – seems less clearly measurable than symbolically charged. Its form gives the impression that it is refusing to accept its own state of matter. Half full? Half empty? Or perhaps both at once? The chosen term ‘choice’ stands here less for the real possibility of decision-making than for its social illusion: the question of choice becomes a tightrope walk on ground that has long since become brittle. A search for clarity where none remains. The aesthetic simplicity of the representation deliberately contrasts with the depth of the question it raises.
The question ‘choice?’ remains unanswered – not out of indecision, but out of an awareness of the structural ambivalence inherent in every seemingly free decision.
Maximilian Völter
> Maximilian Völter
> Born in 1994 in Wismar, Germany
> Lives and works in Bremen.
> Student at the University of Bremen
> BA in Art, Media and Aesthetic Education
> Tutors include Wolfgang Hainke (participated in Documenta 8; has collaborated with Richard Hamilton, Emmet Williams and many others)
> Member of the Student Art Market since 2021
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 O.S.D (solo), Bremen, Germany (June 2021)
2021 Year Group Exhibition ‘Printmaking – Etching’ (group), University of Bremen, DE (09/21 – 12/21)
2022 O.S.D (solo), Bremen, Germany (June 2022)
2022 Year Group Exhibition ‘Printmaking – Screen Printing’ (group), University of Bremen, DE (04/22 – 07/22)
2022 CONTEXT Gallery (group), Venice, IT (July 2022 – September 2022)
2022 Reverse (group), The Hidden Art Project, Oldenburg, DE (09/22)
2022 YFA (group), Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany (Oct 22 – Jan 23)
2023 ArtFest (group), Constructor University, Bremen, Germany (March 2023)
2023 Tabularasaa (group), TSH, Groningen, NL (April 2023 – June 2023)
2023 O.S.D (solo), Bremen, Germany (June 2023)
2023 'Painting' Graduating Class Exhibition (group exhibition), University of Bremen, DE (July 2023)
2023 CNTMPRY, Reset Gallery (group), Berlin, DE (08/23 – 10/23)
2023 YFA (group), Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, DE (10/23 – 01/24)
2024 L'art contemporain du futur (group), Nancy, FR (02/24 – 04/24)
2024 ArtFest Bremen (group), Constructor University, Bremen, DE (04/24)
2024 ‘Money’ (group), HUB Galerie, Bremen, DE (May 2024 – June 2024)
2024 O.S.D (solo), Bremen, Germany (June 2024)
2024 SG24 (solo), STUDIO GERDA, Bremen (09/24 – 11/24)
2024 YFA (group), Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, DE (Nov 24 – Feb 2025)
2025 ArtFest Bremen (group), Constructor University Bremen, Germany (April 2025)
2025 ‘RANDFIGUREN’ (solo), Rathausgalerie Neukloster, Neukloster, DE (May 2025 – August 2025)
2025 ‘DIE SCHÖNEN TAGE’ (group), STUDIO GERDA, Bremen (09/25 – 10/25)
Artist Statement:
For me, painting is not a place of retreat, not a ‘safe space’ – it is the arena for a confrontation with a world that is overwhelming, fragmented and confusing. A space of imposition, in which complexity is not explained but felt. In a present characterised by acceleration, a flood of images and political fragmentation, I see painting as an act of resistance: against the smooth, the legible, the exploitable. I do not view the image as an answer, but as resistance: against unambiguity, against decorative complacency, against the constant smoothing over of the present. My images arise from friction. They superimpose fragments from political visual traditions, pop culture, subcultures, art history and contemporary media images. These visual worlds collide – sometimes violently, sometimes reluctantly – without resulting in any stable order. For me, appropriation is not a detached commentary, but a form of responsibility: what I show is not meant to reassure, but to challenge.
The figure plays an ambivalent role in my work – it is both a disruptive element and a vehicle. Never quite present, never fully legible. It bears traces, but reveals no classical narratives. In its fragility, it becomes a mirror of both societal and individual tensions – an ‘in-between being’ that resists identification and attribution. I do not believe in purity, nor in the autonomous image, nor in a detached position. I believe in friction. In the coexistence of beauty and abysmal depth. In the possibility of creating spaces within painting that elude immediate appropriation. Spaces in which social tensions are reflected without needing to be resolved. I am interested in the image at the point where it tips over – both compositionally and in terms of content. Where it becomes overwhelming – not as a flaw, but as a quality. I am constantly searching for that zone where an image becomes too much – where it begins to rebel against its own order. Not out of a desire for destruction, but to create space for ambivalence, ambiguity and resistance.
For me, painting is concentration: physical, mental, political. It demands decision-making, but also the ability to endure uncertainty. It is rarely a statement, but more often a conversation with a wayward counterpart. A space in which one’s stance is revealed not through bold messages, but through perseverance: in the gesture, in the doubt, in carrying on – despite everything. What drives me is the question of how a painting is still possible today – in the face of visual overload, political tensions and exhaustion. And how it can unleash a power that does not appease but confronts, does not resolve but endures, does not conclude but leaves things open – a power that extends far beyond decoration or market value.
Other artworks by the artist
