The SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT is hosting a major solo exhibition by Frankfurt-based artist Thomas Bayrle (born 1937). On display are 55 works, mainly from the last two decades, including paintings and graphic art, sculptures and object art, as well as sound installations and a video work.
Bayrle's art revolves around central questions of modern society: the relationship between the individual and the masses, religion and consumption, technology and production. Topics such as urbanity, mobility, pop and mass culture, and (substitute) religion shape his work, as do his exploration of motifs from art history, from Michelangelo to Monet, and the concept of work.
Bayrle developed his characteristic superforms back in the 1960s and 1970s, in which individual elements are combined through repetition, interconnection, and condensation to form complex overall images—a principle that continues to define his work to this day. This approach is also influenced by his biography: trained as a machine weaver, Bayrle consistently transferred the logic of industrial production and printing techniques to his art. This creates a multi-layered dialogue between analog technology and the digital present—and not least with the exhibition venue itself, the former industrial building of the Dondorf printing company.
February 12 to May 10, 2026
