Raffael Bader
Leipzig-based visual artist, Raffael Bader, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig, Germany, in 2019. He grew up in South Germany but traveled around in his youth. The change of location, which is also reflected in his longer stays abroad (Australia, Asia, and Latin America, among others), has a decisive influence on his work. Bader’s paintings deal with his view of a world full of tensions, while these tensions hold our world together. In 2020 he began exhibiting internationally, including in Switzerland and the USA. In 2020 he received the "Denkzeit" grant from the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, and in 2021 he received a work scholarship from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn.
The artist writes: "I understand my painting as an open process, so I do not seek perfection, which would seem like the end of potential. Thus, I have realized that the possibility of imperfection leads me to an abstract way of working, where I can focus on the essentials and create works that invite the viewer to resonate with their own experience and inner state. In the process of creating an image, I look for what presents itself to me as the core elements of nature. I find this in landscapes and their colors, shapes, and lines, which awaken our longings while simultaneously containing the subtle presence of danger. Images emerge that originate from reality. However, not the one that is currently being experienced, but the reality that forms in me over time, manifesting itself in my paintings. The forms found move between strong abstraction and familiar structures.
Most of the paintings start with "notes," which are small, simple drawings that arise intuitively, then I decide whether I want to paint them. When I begin with these drawings, the painting quickly takes on a life of its own. I paint with oil paint and oil pencils on canvas. I use a medium that makes the oil paint water-miscible so that I can create very thin watery layers as well as thicker ones. In conjunction with the oil pencils, I can create different textures. It is important to me that the canvas does not appear completely covered in paint. I also work with different techniques on paper."
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Raffael BaderFollow a Nocturnal Stream, 2025Oil on canvas80 x 70 cm
31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in -
Raffael BaderPremonition of a Hot Day, 2025Oil on canvas80 x 70 cm
31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in -
Raffael BaderTowering High, 2024Oil on canvas50 x 40 cm
19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in -
Raffael BaderWhile Other Moments Pass, 2023-24Oil on canvas90 x 75 cm
35 3/8 x 29 1/2 in -
Raffael BaderIn the End the Bush Burns Down V, 2023 - 2025Oil on canvas115 x 140 cm
45 1/4 x 55 1/8 in
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Feral Within
Raffael Bader 13 Sep - 1 Nov 2025Read more -
Landscapes of Time and Memory
Rebecca Partridge, Fernando Casasempere, Silke Weißbach, Raffael Bader, Fred Sorrell, Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei Garcia, Abigail Booth, and Peter Matthews 17 May - 28 Jun 2025Read more -
Invited: Ember
Silke Weißbach, Fernando Casasempere, Mark Jackson, Rebecca Partridge, Raffael Bader 13 - 15 Sep 2024Read more -
Antidote
Li Li Ren, Jamie North, Abigail Booth, Max Bainbridge, Rebecca Partridge, Fred Sorrell, Raffael Bader, Hannah Rowan, Jelly Green, Martine Poppe, Rain Wu 16 - 21 Apr 2024Read more
Education
2019
Diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts (HGB), Leipzig, Germany.
2012 - 2019
Meller.
Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts (HGB), Leipzig, Germany. Under supervision of Prof. Ingo
Grants and Residencies
2024
Residency at Colstoun Art, Scotland
2021
Arbeitsstipendium, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2020
DENKZEIT, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Exhibitions
2025
Landscape of Time and Memory, Fred Levine, Somerset, UK (Group)
Traverse Heights Right to the Edges, Yiri Arts, Taipai, Taiwan (Solo)
Art Rotterdam '25, Enari Gallery, Rotterdam, NL (fair)
2024
PAN Amsterdam, Enari Gallery, Amsterdam, NL (fair)
The Metamorphosis, Yiri Arts, Taipai, Taiwan (group)
Uplands, Rhodes Contemporary Art, London, UK (group)
Luminous Floating, Enari Gallery, Amsterdam, NL (solo)
Terra, Curated by Jenn Ellis and Emie Diamond with Enari Gallery, Burgundy, France (group)
INVITED: ‘ember’, Informality Gallery at Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany (group)
The Landscape, Reimagined, BEERS at Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (group)
Resident I, Colstoun Art, Haddington, Scotland (group)
Enigmatic Stream, Galerie Philipp Anders, Leipzig, Germany (solo)
antidote, Informality, London, UK (group)
T-10 Project, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (solo)
To Build a Home, mini Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (group)
Art Rotterdam, enari Gallery, Netherlands (fair)
2023
Art Taipei 2023, Yiri Arts Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (fair)
Walk in Sizzling Air, Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
Internal Encounters, enari Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (duo)
Durchstreifen und verweilen, Brennwald Galerie, Kiel, Germany (duo)
New Landscapes, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain (group)
outset Gallery, Galway, Ierland (group)
Art Paris, enari Gallery, Paris, France (art fair)
New Landscapes, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (group)
London Art Fair, Candida Stevens Gallery, London, UK (art fair)
Abstracta, Annarumma Gallery, Napoli, Italy (group)
All of the world we can see, or Umwelt, Movement, Hamamatsu, Japan (duo)
2022
Roam Inaccessible Paths, BWG Gallery, London, UK (solo)
ACC X ASB EXHIBITION, UNIT1 GALLERY WORKSHOP, London, UK (group)
Silky Lights, ZFK, Leipzig, Germany (group)
Chronicles 4, Galerie Droste, KPM Berlin, Berlin, Germany (group)
Work On Paper 4, Blue Shop Cottage, London, UK (online, group)
2021
2D, Studi0 , St. Moritz, Switzerland (group)
Into the Cosmere, brushes with greatness, London, UK (group)
Geschichtete Verortung, Tapetenwerk Halle C01, Leipzig, Germany (group)
in a new light, Art City Works, (online, group)
Stormy Skies, Rocket Science, Brooklyn, NY, USA (solo)
the colour of spring, artespace, Munich, Germany (online, group)
home, homerwares, London, UK (online, group)
Im Flutlicht, MDBK , Leipzig, Germany (group)
Work On Paper 3, Blue Shop Cottage, London, UK (online, group)
2020
Becoming Habits: Chapter One, Studi0 , St. Moritz, Switzerland (group)
Resonant Strangeness, marram, (online, group)
raus.project Vol. 5, raus.project and neu.form, Würzburg, Germany (group)
The NOW, A WAY Gallery, (online, group)
von hier aus sichtbar, S1, Leipzig, Germany (group)
2019
transform, KUB Galerie, Leipzig, Germany (group)
umfasste linien, Acht-Zwei, Leipzig, Germany (solo)
geworden, Diplomausstellung, Galerie Potemka, Leipzig, Germany (solo)
Diplomaustellung, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig, Germany (group)
2018
when two become one, AKKU/ KV Gästezimmer e.V. , Stuttgart, Germany (group)
verlorenes bleibt, Ocka, Leipzig, Germany (solo)
2017
Leipzig Transfer, Gallery AdBK, Nürnberg, Germany (group)
2016
erinnere dich!, Ocka, Leipzig, Germany (solo)
Maifrische, Erfrischungsraum, Luzern / CH (group)