Manuel Stehli Swiss, b. 1988

Manuel Stehli (b.1988) was born in Zurich and currently lives and works in Berlin. In 2014 he graduated from Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig.

In his recent work, Manuel Stehli has been focusing on the life-sized depiction of the human figure, both individually and in groups. While the situations presented appear rather concrete at first glance, Stehli's paintings refuse a specific placement in space and time. They don't represent events but rather states, experimental arrangements showing one possibility out of many. There is a peculiar sense of limbo inherent in these paintings: between their blatant presence on the one hand and their muteness on the other, between the intimacy they suggest and the remoteness within which it is sealed. Stehli's works are reticent, they don't reach out to the spectator, but rather act as mere presences, be it as counterparts or placeholders, leaving one to fill the silences themselves.

His recent solo exhibitions include Come Too Close, (1690 Art Collection Space, Shanghai, 2023); oh so slowly, Schierke Seinecke (Frankfurt, 2023); in its place, TAO Art Space (Taipei, 2022); From a Distance, Grisebach (Zurich, 2021); Moving Inland, Galerie Marguo (Paris, 2021); jetzt dut, Schierke Seinecke (Frankfurt, 2021); Strangers When We Meet, Lemoyne (Zurich, 2020), Sober Speech, Gallery of the Czech Centre Berlin (Berlin, 2020), Some Kind of Change, Studio Picknick (Berlin, 2019); Tongue Tied, WERK (Berlin, 2019); Wait A Second, Schierke Seinecke (Frankfurt, 2018); and Jetzt Aber, Bistro 21 (Leipzig, 2016).

Manuel Stehli’s work is in the permanent collections of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen and the Collection of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.