10/05/2026
Brilliant new works, great install, and this must be the best exhibition title ever!
DE, Potsdam (exhibition)
Osmar Osten * Kunstverein KunstHaus Potsdam
Nie wieder Urknall! [Never again the Big Bang]
Curated by Jens Milde
March 22 – May 10, 2026
Finissage
Sunday, May 10, 4 pm
with a reading by Matthias Zwarg
Osmar Osten is regarded by many as a language artist and a virtuoso verbal trickster. First and foremost, however, Osten is a painter who draws language into his painting, examining it both in terms of meaning and for its visual force.
Born in 1959 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (GDR), Osten’s artistic development received decisive impulses during the 1980s through his association with the artist group Clara Mosch and the Galerie Oben.
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And it is not only language that recurs throughout Osten’s works, but also his motifs: alongside the aforementioned hares, birds, fish, and snowmen, motifs drawn from the folk art traditions of the Ore Mountains – such as nutcrackers, incense smokers, and miners‘ figures – populate his paintings. Rooted in precise observations of everyday life, this world of imagery and language forms a self-contained and coherent structure from which questions concerning contemporary political, social, and economic realities continually emerge.
In 2022, Osten was awarded the Hans-Platschek-Preis für Kunst und Schrift for „his post-Dadaist painting and his ironic short texts.“ In 2025, during the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, Osten was among the defining artistic voices of the region, notably through his participation in the Purple Path. (transl. from the German press release)
At Galerie Mountains, Osmar Osten had solo exhibitions in 2022 and 2024, and will be presented by the gallery in the upcoming 2026 edition of Basel Social Club (alongside Eric Meier) this June.