Dietmar Brixy - Wanderlust

Dietmar Brixy - WANDERLUST
Presented as part of Personal Structures - Confluences
Parallel to Biennale Arte 2026 - 61st International Art Exhibition of Venice
13 September - 11 October 2026, Palazzo Bembo

With his exhibition WANDERLUST, on view from 13 September to 11 October 2026 in parallel with Biennale Arte 2026 at the renowned Palazzo Bembo near the Rialto Bridge, German artist Dietmar Brixy presents a multi-layered panorama between dream and reality.

The title refers to a term originating in the German language that has long since entered several European languages. Deeply rooted in Romantic notions of nature, movement and self-discovery, Wanderlust describes less a specific destination than an inner attitude: the desire for departure and for the experience of being on the move itself. In Brixy's painting, this attitude becomes visible in gestural traces, dense painterly formations and movements of colour that seem to lead like paths through unknown terrain.

Brixy is regarded as one of the distinctive voices of contemporary abstract painting in Germany and has developed an unmistakable visual language. His artistic practice is shaped by a longing for discovery and encounter. Travels to Malaysia, Mexico, India, Bali, the Seychelles and the United States have had a lasting influence on his perception and are reflected in the complexity and intensity of his works.

The exhibition brings together key works from the Journey and Wanderlust series with recent pieces from the artist's ongoing creative process. It offers a concentrated insight into a painterly practice defined by movement and transformation. Landscape forms the point of departure for his painting, yet not as a depiction of external reality, but as an expression of inner states. Horizon lines, fields of colour and tectonic structures open up pictorial spaces in which perception, memory and imagination overlap. A special highlight of the exhibition is a three-metre-high spatial installation in the form of an octagon, inviting visitors into an immersive experience and extending Brixy's painting into space.

Characteristic of his work is an intense, expressive use of colour. In a multi-layered working process that oscillates between meditative calm and impulsive dynamism, Brixy applies paint with brushes, spatulas, combs and his bare hands. Thick impasto layers, transparent glazes and exposed passages create surfaces in which time remains inscribed as a trace. Painting appears here as an ongoing process, in dialogue between construction and dissolution.
For Dietmar Brixy, WANDERLUST does not stand for escapism, but for an attitude of openness towards change and uncertainty. The exhibition invites visitors to move through the pictorial spaces without a predetermined narrative and to develop their own paths of seeing - as an experience of movement, resonance and lingering in the in-between.

Brixy's works have been shown internationally in numerous exhibitions. His studio, an elaborately restored neo-Gothic industrial monument in Mannheim surrounded by a paradisiacal garden, has become a lively meeting place for art enthusiasts from around the world. Following the widely acclaimed exhibition The Description of the World, which attracted more than 27,000 visitors in 2024 to the Sale Monumentali of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, in parallel with Biennale Arte, WANDERLUST marks his second appearance in the lagoon city.
The exhibition, initiated by internationally renowned art expert and curator Dirk Geuer, is realised by the non-profit Association for Art in Public. As a Special Project, it is part of the eighth edition of Personal Structures, the contemporary art exhibition organised by the European Cultural Centre Italy, which, under the title Confluences, creates spaces of encounter in a present shaped by upheaval and transformation.

Opening
The opening of the exhibition will take place on 12 September 2026 at 5:00 p.m. at Palazzo Bembo, Riva del Carbon 4793, Venice.
The opening speech will be given by Prof. Dr. Beate Reifenscheid, curator of the exhibition and Director of the Ludwig Museum Koblenz. The artist will be present.

Dietmar Brixy: WANDERLUST
13 September - 11 October 2026
Palazzo Bembo
Riva del Carbon 4793, 30124 Venice, Italy
Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., closed on Tuesdays
Free admission

Artist Studio Brixy
Aufeldstraße 19
68199 Mannheim

Dietmar Brixy is a German artist from Mannheim. His expressive, vividly colored paintings combine gestural brushstrokes, multi-layered textures, and pictorial spaces that bridge nature, memory, and inner movement.

This release was published on openPR.