Where can you admire René Mayer’s work in spring-summer 2025?
René Mayer takes part in group and solo exhibitions every year. Here’s where to see his work:
René Mayer takes part in a new group exhibition in Istanbul
Vision Art Platform has decided to include two pieces by René Mayer in a curated group exhibition, which is an exceptional opportunity.
Kesişmeler | Schnittpunkte” exhibition from 29 April to 26 July 2025
The exhibition, curated by Fırat Arapoğlu, opens on Tuesday 29 April at 7pm and will run until 26 July 2025 at Vision Art Platform in Istanbul. This is a major project, bringing together a selection of artists with varied backgrounds and aesthetics, including several well-known figures from Istanbul’s contemporary art scene.
An experienced commissioner with a high profile
Fırat Arapoğlu, a respected art critic and curator, brings a strong expertise to this exhibition. The event will also benefit from media coverage provided by GQ Turkey, offering high visibility to all the participating artists.
Artists on show
René Mayer, Aida Mahmudova, Fatih Temiz, Payidar Seyma Alisir, Lara Sayilgan, Semih Zeki, Kibele Yarman, Soyhan Baltaci, Sefa Cakir, Berna Dolmaci, Mert Acar
René Mayer exhibited in Istanbul at the Vision Art Platform
René Mayer’s works At the Centre B (2021) and Slow Disappearance (2023) will be presented as part of the group exhibition “Kesişmeler | Schnittpunkte”, curated by Fırat Arapoğlu at Vision Art Platform in Istanbul, from 29 April to 26 July 2025. These two paintings stand out as visual and conceptual interrogations of nature, the economy and human intervention.
In these works, painted casino chips are placed on the surface of the canvas. Used recurrently by Mayer, these objects attract attention as critical symbols. As Luca Beatrice points out in his text on the Imperceptible Shift series, presented in a solo exhibition at Bubbio in July 2024, Mayer uses chips to illustrate how chance and risk have become emblems of capitalist intervention in nature.
Nature as playground: a critique of capitalism
These tokens, much more than mere play accessories, represent the consumerist habits and perpetual risk-taking logics of the capitalist system. Mayer argues that nature should not be seen merely as an aesthetic backdrop, but as an objectified entity subject to human manipulation. The tokens make visible this gambling-like relationship that man has with the planet.
According to Mayer: “Casino chips symbolise the irresponsibility of our civilisation. We are playing with the earth as if in a casino, but in this game, we are all losers”.
The consequences of this defeat are not immediately visible: the change is imperceptible, and we don’t pay attention until it’s too late. By the time we realise the scale of the transformation, it is often impossible to go back to the way things were. In a casino, it’s as if the eyes are feasting.
A global and ethical look at the environment
In the Imperceptible Shift series, Mayer explores this fragile relationship between nature and humanity through tokens arranged in a repetitive, serial fashion. This approach echoes the thinking of Dipesh Chakrabarty, in particular his concept of planetary thinking, which emphasises the need to address human impact not only on a social and political scale, but also on a geological one.
In this way, Mayer’s works pose an ethical question that goes beyond a simple aesthetic experience: they invite us to reflect on the unpredictability of nature and the lasting effects of our actions. The random arrangement of the tokens symbolises both the unpredictability and the irreversibility of long-term environmental consequences. Mayer is calling for urgent awareness of the current ecological crises.
As Luca Beatrice concludes, considering the effects of these imperceptible mutations is undoubtedly one of the most urgent responsibilities of our time.
Second exhibition 2025: Happy Anxiety! at AtelierRoshi, Baar
A double series between vitality and urgency
René Mayer’s second exhibition in May 2025 is entitled Happy Anxiety! and will be held at the AtelierRoshi in Baar from 1 to 27 May 2025. It brings together two contrasting but complementary series: Viva Viva and Schleichende Veränderung. Together, they explore the paradoxical cohabitation between joy and anxiety, between vital momentum and ecological urgency.
Schleichende Veränderung: the slow transformation
In this series, Mayer tackles a central theme in his work: the gradual and often invisible destruction of our environment. Using pigments that he mixes himself and casino chips, his paintings act as visual warnings – but without becoming catastrophic. Their vivid colours and dynamic structure encourage us to take action, to remain lucid without despairing.
Viva Viva: a colourful, playful impulse
Inspired by the shapes of driftwood and the bright colours of Mexican folk art, Viva Viva brings to life expressive terracotta figurines full of energy. Mayer describes the series as an explosion of colour, born of a need for light and warmth. The result is a chorus of characters in movement, joyful and communicative, contrasting with the silent tension of the previous works.
A fertile tension
In Happy Anxiety! Mayer invites us to embrace both anxiety and joy, gravity and hope. This exhibition does not ask us to choose between emotions, but rather to allow them to coexist – the better to decide how to act in the face of the challenges of the contemporary world.
Viva Viva: joy as matter
An explosion of colour and movement
With Viva Viva, René Mayer invites us into a vibrant world of energy, movement and connection. This series of brightly coloured, painted terracotta sculptures is bursting with life: each figure embodies a playful spirit and silent poetry. Created in just a few weeks of intense, inspired work, these works reflect a joyful frenzy that Mayer himself describes as “a veritable effervescence of colour”.
Mexican and organic inspiration
The starting point for this series was an exhibition of traditional Mexican sculptures that Mayer discovered during a trip. Seduced by the intense colours and symbolic presence of these objects, he began experimenting with terracotta, seeking a language of form and colour that was both archaic and immediate. He was also inspired by pieces of driftwood, polished by time and the elements, which are reflected in the fluid, organic lines of his sculptures.
A silent choreography
The surfaces are smooth, the volumes balanced: you can feel the influence of Mayer’s design training. But unlike functional objects, these figures express themselves freely. Many evoke faces or masks, with asymmetrical or hollowed features, and invite an emotional, almost musical reading. Mayer often describes them as a choir, vibrating with a collective voice.
Links, glances and dialogues
These sculptures do not exist alone. They lean towards each other, touch, look at each other and respond to each other in a silent dialogue. Some seem to be dancing, others conversing or simply living together. Here, Mayer explores themes of intimacy, empathy and shared presence, without ever resorting to words.
A celebration of the imaginary
In an age marked by tension and fragmentation, Viva Viva proposes a vision of conviviality. This series celebrates colour, human connection and the unlimited potential of the imagination. It reminds us, gently but firmly, that joy is also a serious thing.
René Mayer’s third exhibition in 2025: Paintings & Sculptures at Galerie Hergiswil
An unprecedented retrospective
From 5 to 28 June 2025, Galerie Hergiswil (Seestrasse 31, 6052 Hergiswil) will be hosting the very first retrospective dedicated to René Mayer, a Swiss artist who has been active for over fifty years. Paintings & Sculptures” brings together 18 paintings and 26 sculptures emblematic of his artistic career.
A work at the crossroads of art and perception
Trained at the Basel School of Applied Arts in the 1970s, Mayer was influenced by the Bauhaus approach, Johannes Itten’s theories on colour, and the teachings of the Austrian sculptor Alfred Gruber. His visual language, at once abstract and tactile, is based on rigorous technical mastery and a deep sensitivity to the material.
The series on show reveal a constant exploration of human perception and the contemporary condition. Eyes examines the gaze as a point of emotional contact. Imperceptible Shift and Moving Earth address environmental emergencies through disruptive and poetic forms. Finiteness questions the image of beauty in the face of ageing. Boxes deals with mental and social confinement, while Experiments bears witness to ongoing research into chromatic harmony and composition.
Two major sculptural series
The Viva Viva series presents a joyous world of terracotta figures inspired by Mexican folk art and the Basel carnival, while the Marbre et Granit series distils the human figure into essential forms, striking a subtle balance between tension, intimacy and abstraction.
An invitation to slow down and observe
Through this retrospective, Mayer invites us to take a close, sensitive look at the works and at ourselves. It’s not just a question of seeing, but of understanding how our gaze shapes our relationship with the world.
Conclusion
René Mayer’s exhibitions in the spring and summer of 2025 reveal much more than an exceptional artistic career: they reveal a profound and sincere dialogue between an artist and the world around him. Through the works presented in Istanbul, Baar and Hergiswil, we discover a plastic language that has matured over more than fifty years, where each form, each colour, each material is the fruit of a reflection on our times, our choices and our emotions.
In Istanbul, Mayer uses painting to talk about risk and environmental irresponsibility, with his famous casino chips as a silent but powerful metaphor for our relationship with the world. In Baar, he gives way to the élan vital, with the colourful sculptures of Viva Viva singing of union, joy and closeness. And in Hergiswil, the full breadth of his work – painting, sculpture, experimentation – is on show in a unique retrospective, designed as a journey through the major issues that run through his work: the environment, the gaze, the body, time, visible and invisible limits.
What is striking about all these exhibitions is the coherence of his universe. Mayer imposes nothing. He does not overplay either emotion or criticism. He gives us the keys, the images, the symbols, to think differently. He encourages us to do what art can still offer us today: to slow down, to feel, to connect. To look deeply, instead of simply consuming.
In a world saturated with fast-moving images and noisy opinions, René Mayer’s work takes the opposite tack. It moves slowly, building bridges, making room for the intimate as well as the collective, the political as well as the poetic. Perhaps that, in the end, is the strength of his work: to offer a vision of the world that is lucid but not cynical – serious but never despairing. A work that still believes in human beings, in their capacity to create, to marvel, and to change.
These three exhibitions are an invitation to enter this universe, to get lost in it, and to come out a little different. More attentive. More alive.
