Artist

ARTIST

OTTO GRÄFENBERG

Otto Gräfenberg constructs paintings the way others design buildings — not for people to live in, but for thoughts to echo within. Born in Hamburg and trained as both an architect and a visual artist, Gräfenberg bridges the two disciplines by transforming internal states into spatial environments. His series often resemble blueprints of forgotten cities or the skeletal remains of psychological states. With an approach rooted in brutalist aesthetics and emotional minimalism, Gräfenberg scrapes, incises, and layers his surfaces like excavation sites. His process is as much about what's removed as what's left. Otto's work has been exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, and Rotterdam. Collectors describe his pieces as 'visceral scaffolds for thinking,' and his paintings are often installed in dialogue with architecture or soundscapes. Rather than illustrate, he reveals the structure of memory, isolation, and mental resistance—spaces that can only exist in the imagination but feel eerily familiar.