Stephan Grunenberg (b. 1954, Frankfurt am Main) works between abstraction, figuration and collage. On canvas and paper, he builds semi-figurative compositions from layered colour fields, gestural marks, overlapping forms and reworked surfaces. Informed by his work as an illustrator and as co-editor of the art magazine ROGUE, his practice transforms fragmented bodies, everyday objects and personal memories into pictogram-like signs.

Trained under Thomas Bayrle at Frankfurt’s Städelschule, Grunenberg emerged in the experimental art scene of West Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s, drawing on post-war abstraction, Pop Art and expressive painting.

His recent paintings turn the canon on its head, or rather onto its legs: heads and torsos disappear, while legs, clothing and patterned fabrics take the stage. Balancing painterly spontaneity with carefully orchestrated compositions, these enigmatic pictures allow familiar forms to take on unexpected meanings, in which humour and melancholy coexist.

His works are held in public and private collections, including the Hessian State Parliament and the Miettinen Collection, Berlin.

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A colorful abstract painting with red rubber boots, a portrait of a person's face, and a yellow, orange, and green background. The artist's signature "GRUNBERG" is visible at the bottom.
A painting of a woman with short hair sitting outdoors on a tiled surface, with trees in the background.
Colorful abstract art featuring a black jar with a blue dog and red and white striped fish against a blue background, framed in natural wood.
Abstract artwork with various geometric shapes and patterns, including stripes, grids, and solids, in colors like blue, black, red, beige, and brown. Author's signature "GRUNENBERG" in the bottom left corner.
A framed abstract painting with geometric shapes and bold colors, including blue, orange, and red, on a white wall.
Colorful abstract drawing with various shapes, animals, and objects, framed in a light wooden frame.
Framed abstract artwork of a line drawing of a person's face with swirling red lines over it, on a white wall.
Colorful abstract painting featuring shapes of a face, a spoon, a window, and other geometric elements, with a signature "OK" and "Grouwergirl '18" at the bottom, framed in a light wooden frame.
Abstract colorful artwork with blobs of green, blue, red, and orange shapes, including a dark brown rectangle at the bottom right corner and the artist's signature, Grunberg, in the lower right corner.
An abstract artwork with a blue background, featuring a white silhouette of a hand pointing at the right, surrounded by colorful geometric shapes and lines in pink, red, white, yellow, black, and blue.
Colorful abstract artwork with various shapes and lines in red, blue, green, yellow, and orange, framed in a light wooden frame.
Painting of two women facing right, one with long dark hair and pale skin, and the other with short blond hair and a colorful skirt, with a black background behind the woman on the right and blue behind the woman on the left.
Framed art print of colorful, abstract drawing of a person with orange hair, black and purple clothing, and a creature with gray fur and blue striped shirt, alongside other abstract shapes and lines. Handwritten text at the bottom says 'Courtes' and
A geometric abstract painting with black grid patterns, blue and white striped elements, a yellow shape, and red shoes at the bottom.
Colorful abstract artwork with blue, green, pink, orange, and gray shapes in a wooden frame.
Colorful abstract artwork featuring various shapes and figures, framed in a light wooden frame, with the text 'GRUNENBERG 11' at the bottom.
Colorful drawing of various figures and objects, including a person with guitar, a skeleton, and abstract shapes, titled 'On the Road' by Grunenberg, dated 2018-19.

"Grunenberg's not-so-simple painting playfully questions painterly, social and art-historical hierarchies. Everything in these idiosyncratic pictures has meaning, is equal, nothing is taboo or too banal. Everything is there because it should be, finds its place in this painting – and thus in the world."

— Oliver Koerner von Gustorf

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  • Colour on Paper

    2019, Miettinen Collection, Berlin

  • Interior view of an art gallery with three colorful abstract paintings hanging on a white wall.

    Erdregionale Repräsentanten machen auf sich aufmerksam

    2024, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin

  • Sommergäste

    2017, Ausstellungshalle 1A, Frankfurt

  • An art gallery with white walls displaying three abstract paintings, a black seating area in the corner, and windows showing trees outside. The gallery has a polished dark floor and professional ceiling lighting.

    Bilder aus den Neunzehnhundertachtzigern

    2015, Ausstellungshalle 1A, Frankfurt

Exhibitions