Michael E. X. Rietzler

In the artist's words:

As a visual artist, I work with acrylic and mixed media, mostly in layers, intuitively. Structures, cracks and coincidences form backgrounds on which faces emerge - not as classic portraits, but as projection surfaces: for stories, emotions, origins and attributions. I am interested in faces as places, as stages of social imprinting.

At the center of my work is the examination of identity - especially with male and queer self-images. Questions about roles, power, vulnerability, origin and change characterize my artistic practice.

Having grown up in a village on the Elbe in Lower Saxony and later been active in Berlin's queer art scene for a long time, I bring with me experiences that combine rural tranquillity and urban intensity, tradition and upheaval.

What does it mean to be a man today? How do social narratives affect our self-image? And is identity something fixed - or an open process?
These are the questions that drive me. For me, art is not just an expression, but an invitation: to debate, to talk