Friedrich Kunath — On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever — Max Hetzler Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In 3 days: March 7 → May 16, 2026

Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris, is pleased to present On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever, a solo exhibition of new paintings and a sculpture by Friedrich Kunath. This is the artist’s third exhibition with the gallery and his first in the Paris space.

German-born artist Friedrich Kunath works across painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video. Kunath considers himself a composer of images. Drawing from a wealth of references spanning personal history, music, German Romanticism, and pop culture, he creates dense narratives and rich pictorial worlds. His works often emerge from an initial emotional impulse that gradually unfolds through the act of painting.

The exhibition opens with a depiction of a tropical landscape. Titled I Think I’ve Made It, 2022–2026, the painting presents a lake surrounded by lush vegetation. Humorously upending the viewer’s expectations, a snowman stands on an island in the middle of the lake sending a text message. A recurring figure in Kunath’s work, the snowman reappears in the artist’s monumental triptych, On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever, 2025–2026, which depicts an open stretch of beach veiled in mist. While Kunath is known for his dense and contrasting compositions, brimming with vibrant colour and texture, this ironically-titled, fog-shrouded shore appears restrained and pared-down. Lending the exhibition its title, the work references The Peddlers’ song, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. In an act of wordplay, Kunath transforms the song’s original title, playfully amplifying its wistful and romantic resonance.

For his creative process, Kunath works in layers, slowly building up his compositions through rich, impasto underpaintings. He subsequently inscribes small drawings, notations, a phone number, to-do lists, song lyrics, and so forth, that capture an array of fleeting thoughts and emotions. Once this first layer has hardened, an appropriated image is painted on top. Encouraging a slow and deliberate process of looking, the viewer may uncover these cathartic details, which represent most readily the unconscious stage of the artist’s creative output. Embedded within the layers of paint, they invite a personal and psychological reading of the work.

In Dear Uncertainty, 2025, a stretch of highway, set against a flaming sunset, encapsulates Kunath’s intuitive approach to image-making. The vast openness of the image draws the viewer in, immersing us in a sense of unbridled natural wonder. Capturing these moments of ephemeral beauty in nature, Kunath’s works point towards the fundamental enigma of such aesthetic encounters, underscoring a sense of mystery and uncertainty as their ultimate gift.

Describing his technique, Kunath often refers to the psychological dynamic between the unconscious and the conscious mind. As a central theme of the exhibition, this dichotomy is reflected in the way the two gallery spaces interact: the works in the first smaller space possess an abstract, instinctive, and unconscious quality. They are the amoebic jetsam from which Kunath’s entire practice is born. The works in the second, larger space emerge fully formed, ‘conscious’, and mediated by precise, relatable images.

Surrounded by a selection of abstract paintings, Kunath’s bronze sculpture, Sorry I Thought I Was Someone Else, 2026, depicts a ghost seemingly preparing for the day ahead, as he irons out a fresh new sheet to inhabit. Like the other characters in Kunath’s pictorial universe, the figure represents one of the many archetypes of the artist’s personality — and perhaps of our own. Indeed, immersed in a flow of images and symbols throughout the exhibition, we become confronted with our own beliefs and complex inner landscapes.

Friedrich Kunath (b. 1974, Chemnitz, Germany) lives and works in Los Angeles and Berlin. The artist’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in institutions including Stiftung zur Förderung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen (2025); G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig (2024); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (duo show, 2024); KINDL, Berlin; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Malaga (both 2023); Kunstsammlung Jena (2021); Philara Collection, Düsseldorf (2016); Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry — le Crédac, Ivry- sur-Seine; Kunsthalle Bremerhaven; CAPRI, Düsseldorf; Nassau County Museum of Art, New York (all 2014); Modern Art Oxford (2013); Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2012); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2011); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstsaele, Berlin (both 2010); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; Kunstverein Hannover (both 2009); Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen (2007); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2002); and The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2000), among others.

Kunath’s work is included in the collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Deji Art Museum, Nanjing; DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson; Kunstverein Reutlingen; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pinault Collection, Paris; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.