Albert Merz – “INTRO”: A ritual between dream, archetype and present

With his current solo exhibition INTRO  at AK Galerie Berlin, Albert Merz ( *1942, Unterägeri ) once again treads a path between symbolic imagery and inner journeying through the world. What awaits visitors? A work that doesn't simply read as painting or sculpture, but rather as an attempt to penetrate the boundary between the conscious and the unconscious—and thus an invitation to discover oneself.

Between symbol and sensuality

Merz's works bear witness to a long artistic development: Active in Berlin since the 1980s, he has developed a complex, personal vocabulary of symbols and archetypes, characterized by figurative allusions as well as abstract forms. In INTRO , these elements are played out more powerfully than ever. Every line, every surface appears as consciously placed as it is intuitively created. The opposites—order and chaos, visible and invisible—are not contradictions, but part of a whole that Merz brings together with meditative calm and cool precision.

Memory, myth, origin

A central motif of the exhibition is memory—not as a nostalgic look back, but as the fundamental tenor of human existence. His paintings create scenes that evoke moments of déjà vu. One feels as if one is seeing something long familiar, a primal dream, the premature birth of a myth, or the birth of the world itself. Merz develops these feelings in compositions in which myth and the present overlap, in which memory acts as a dynamic force.

The sculptures in the exhibition bring these inner images to life. They anchor the symbol in space, matter, and shadow—making it tangible that the origin is never detached from the present. Form and material react, opening up space for imagination without operating solely in a narrative sense.

A look into the depths

Merz's art-theoretical influence, particularly through Jungian psychoanalysis, is palpable—not as a scientific footnote, but as a fundamental attitude: a deep confidence that something collectively unifying can be found in the archetype that concerns all humanity. His play with signs, shapes, and geometric spaces is not aimed at speculation, but at experience—at what can be seen, felt, but not necessarily named.

Special features of INTRO

• New paintings and sculptures – works that demonstrate Merz's long-term perspective; mature, concentrated, confident.
• Pictorial spaces with symbolic density – each work contains a grammar of symbols that cannot be immediately deciphered, but can be experienced.
• A dialogic use of media – painting and sculpture speak to each other, each distinct, yet part of a common space.

Invitation

INTRO is not a silent experience, but it is also not a spectacle. It is an invitation to take time, to pause – in front of a painting, in front of a sculpture, and in front of oneself. The exhibition opens spaces where sensitivity, dreams, and archetypes converge – and where the primal and the inexplicable become visible.

Albert Merz – INTRO
AK Galerie Berlin
12 October – 13 November 2025
Opening: 11 October 2025, 4–7 pm