Andreas Hofer

For his New York debut, Andreas Hofer presents “Only Gods Could Survive,” a haunting and hallucinogenic installation of sculpture, painting, drawing and collage. The artist will be present for an opening reception on Friday, March 23, from 6 - 8pm.

Using subject matter that includes comic book heroes, science fiction, bygone Hollywood and symbols of the Third Reich, Hofer extracts these signs from a forbidden world, producing artworks that traverse time to become an ominous and fanciful meditation on history and popular culture.

Moving skillfully between mediums and a vastly shifting scale, Hofer employs a brusque, instinctive hand that, nevertheless, reveals a nostalgic, even romantic sensibility in his work. The centerpiece of the show - a 20-foot long relief in the style of fascist-era sculpture and architecture – is in fact a small, delicate collage by Hofer blown up to this heroic scale. Signing his works with the alter ego “Andy Hope,” and the date “1930,” Hofer simultaneously invokes an all-American optimism and a dark era of European history.

Andreas Hofer was born in Munich in 1963 and lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Academy for Visual Arts in Munich and at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. Hofer recently exhibited at Hauser & Wirth in London. The accompanying catalog and a book published in conjunction with an exhibition at Lenbachhaus, Munich is available at the gallery.

Andreas Hofer
Only Gods Could Survive