Nan Ke Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming group exhibition On Set, opening on August 2. Since Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer introduced the concept of the "Culture Industry" in Dialectic of Enlightenment, film production has often been understood as a form of assembly-line manufacturing.
In this exhibition, Marlon Wobst was born in 1980 in Wiesbaden and currently based in Berlin, is a German artist renowned for his surreal, humorous, and body-centric paintings. His work delves into themes of body image, physical optimization, and aesthetic standards, blending figurative and abstract elements with a distinctive playful irony. Wobst’s artistic practice primarily encompasses oil paintings, felt, and prints, such as his six-color lithograph series featuring themes like “OMFG” and “ROFL,” reflecting his engagement with everyday scenes, physical movement, and social media culture. He employs rough brushstrokes and abstracted bodily forms to critique notions of perfectionism.
Wobst’s works have been exhibited and collected by notable institutions, including the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin, where he showcased his art in connection with the UdK Meisterschülerpreis (Master Student Award). His presence extends to other prestigious venues such as Kunstverein Siegen and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, reflecting his growing influence in the contemporary art world. These exhibitions and collections underscore the resonance of Wobst’s unique visual language, which continues to captivate audiences and collectors alike.
Marlon Wobst
Große Welle, 2016
Triptych oil on canvas
200h x 120w cm x 3
© Courtesy of the artist
The top level expands the visual horizon, shifting from the partial, monitor-like framing to a panoramic reveal of the entire “set”—its backdrop walls, spotlights, and staged props fully exposed. The illusion of boundless cinematic space fractures, revealing its finite constructs. Martine Poppe’s trio of skyscapes—Pareidolia, Not a cloud in sight #2, and Neverwhere—combine into a large, airy panorama where gradient hues are interrupted by the edges of the canvas, subtly emphasizing the artificiality of the constructed scene. On the facing wall, Marlon Wobst’s monumental triptych Große Welle echoes the sky, presenting a frame-by-frame dissection of performers’ gestures, reminiscent of editing sequences.
Marlon Wobst
Graue Sonne, 2018
Oil on canvas
190h x 210w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
In another mezzanine section of the show, a second work by Wobst continues his exploration of the ambiguity between body image and character identity. The figures in this canvas appear as stand-ins or understudies—awaiting their cue, half-formed, their expressions undefined, their environments non-specific. Yet this vagueness becomes the very strength of the work, evoking the psychological space before narrative coherence: a liminal visual zone made of subtext, sketches, and recollection. With his textured brushwork and softened palette, Wobst gently disrupts the logic of realism, turning the act of painting into a quiet intervention within the machinery of image production.
Marlon Wobst
Infinity Pool, 2018
Oil on canvas
110w x 120h cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Within the curatorial framework of On Set, Wobst’s work illuminates how “characters” are continually manufactured, edited, and reproduced by the culture industry. His blurred visual language resists the codified body and the defined role, turning painting into a philosophical inquiry into ambiguity. Amid the constructed spectacle and visible seams of cinematic production, Wobst’s canvases function as soft screens—projecting narratives unfinished, and truths forever indistinct.
July 30, 2025
