Frank Mädler’s exhibition Selbst explores how a life can be brought into representation – and what becomes of the self in the process. At its centre are the ceramic works he has been creating since 2022 under the title Selbstdarstellungen. Taking moments from his life as their starting point, they depict not only lived experience but also possible versions of himself. “That means,” Mädler says, “that I have always depicted myself, or a person I could also have been.”
The ceramics are accompanied by the photographic series Wiesen, where personal memory intersects with contemporary history, and by a selection of autobiographical Polaroids. Together, the works explore how memory takes shape – and how a life can be represented.

“The ceramics in Selbstdarstellungen resist symbolism. They speak from within the moment itself: the moment when memory takes on form, the moment when the material determines what, from a life, can be rendered visible at all.”
— Insa Wilke

A publication accompanies the exhibition.

Frank Mädler was born in Torgelow, Germany, in 1963. He studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig), the Complutense University of Madrid, and the University of Castilla–La Mancha in Cuenca. He subsequently completed postgraduate studies as a Meisterschüler under Astrid Klein. Since 2000, he has worked as an independent artist based in Leipzig. Mädler has received numerous awards and grants, including a residency grant at Villa Massimo in Rome in 2004, a working grant from the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony in 2007, and the Al Lado artist residency in Lima, Peru, in 2017. His works are held in a wide range of international public and private collections, including the American Bank Collection, the Fondation Antoine de Galbert in Paris, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Canada, the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, the DZ BANK Art Collection, the Deutsche Telekom Collection, and the Dresden State Art Collections. Frank Mädler has published several monographs and books. His work has been discussed by numerous curators and critics, including Martina Padberg, Tanja Dückers, Charlotte Gutmann, Lily Koshitavshvili, Maximilian Keller, Christina Leber, Agnes Matthias, Katharina Menzel, and Insa Wilke.