Max Grote’s paintings unfold as staged mirrors: reflective, meticulously planned, and deeply personal, yet always laced with an unmistakable irony. Working in oil with a glossy, photographic sheen, he creates images that appear at once theatrical and strangely intimate. POortraits that shimmer like captured moments, yet resist the fixity of photography.

At the core of his practice is the self-portrait, approached not as self-celebration but as a site of ongoing negotiation. As Grote himself notes, “I mainly paint self-portraits, which at first glance have a certain seriousness, but always have something ironic about them.” In his current work, this negotiation moves through deeply personal terrain: “At the moment it’s a lot about my own body image, vulnerability, recurring suicidal thoughts, the resulting dying and being born, my own position in the art world, the dialog with art history, love dramas and always a reflection of medieval fashion.”

Grote’s paintings probe these emotional and psychological states with disarming clarity, staging cycles of collapse and renewal through his own image. These themes are entwined with recurring references to medieval and baroque iconographies — armour, castles, ritual poses, historical costume, which he reinterprets through a distinctly contemporary lens, allowing historical gravitas and personal fragility to coexist within the same painted frame.

Despite the density of these narratives, Grote introduces a surprising and disarming lightness. Titles such as “mhh lecker lecker” puncture the expected solemnity, reframing grand historical aesthetics with humour and self-awareness. This playfulness destabilises the theatrical surface of the works, allowing them to oscillate between sincerity and parody, distance and exposure.
Ultimately, Grote understands painting as an inward-facing practice: My goal is always to engage in a confrontation with myself , to find a resolution within myself. What the work triggers in the viewer is not so important.

Presented for the first time with MASSOUMI Gallery at the Boutique Art Fair 2025, Grote’s work marks a new position within the program.

Education
2022 | Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee
2024 | Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Klasse Jorinde Voigt)

Exhibitions
2024 | Ich und mein Schloss, Solo at Galerie Schindler Lab, Potsdam, Germany
2024 | Gegen den Strich - Künstler:innen der Gen Z, Group at Kunstverein Schloss Sacrow, Postdam, Germany

Fairs
2025 | Positions Art Fair, Berlin, Germany
2025 | Academy Positions, Berlin, Germany

Collections (public)
Salon Schinkelplatz
Preuss Collection