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Upcoming Events

Salon Gröne x Rietz
with Oliver Gröne

La Casa de Wannsee, Potsdam
05/07/2026, 4-7 pm

Painting of a landscape with a large tree in the foreground, a body of water, and distant hills under a partly cloudy sky.

Close-up of a purple fabric or surface with a smooth texture.

Three years ago, both painters relocated their studios to the same old industrial hall in Babelsberg. Their works, which appear quite different at first glance, are now being exhibited together in a joint Salon in a private villa Potsdam. The venue itself has an eventful history: it was once the site of Europe's first institute for applied psychology and was later surrounded by the inner-German border wall, with the narrowest part of the GDR right on its doorstep.

For Oliver Gröne, painting is a means of organising space. His works, composed of abstract planes and symbols, draw on our visual habits whilst simultaneously subverting them. Gröne's works are consistently characterised by their role as references to and homages to the history of painting.

Christian Rietz, on the other hand, takes a concrete approach. In his works, the visible world is excluded. His use of textures and shades represents a distillation of painting to its fundamental essence. We are confronted with ourselves and our expectations of an image.

One might say that Gröne regards painting as an open window. For Rietz, it is a mirror.

The Salon runs from 4 to 7 pm. Three hours, no second date.

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Past Events

Exhibition
was wir sehen wollen

La Casa de Wannsee, Potsdam
08/03/2026

Unevenness, overpainting, deliberately placed empty spaces: Christian Rietz's painting is characterised by subtle colour nuances and an emphasis on materiality. In his works, fields of colour overlap like shimmering layers. Vibrating spaces, the soft murmur of an overexposed moment, small blurred areas.

In the tradition of concrete painting, the visible world is not abstracted, it is excluded from the outset. What remains is paint, surface, and the act of looking itself.

Areas of Rietz' paintings appear like narrow portals and tell us that perception is never neutral. That we are constantly filtering, deleting, adding – that we always see what we want to see. His works open up a space of resonance in which perception itself becomes the subject. The white, the noise, the fragile silhouettes, all of this invites us to look more closely, but also to perceive our own projections.

An arched window with white framing looking into a room with three square canvas artworks on the wall, one purple and two white, with handwritten purple text that says, "was wir sehen wollten".

A woman taking a photo or video with a smartphone inside an art gallery or studio. The room has white walls, a large abstract painting with white and pink brushstrokes, an iron chandelier with candles, a brick wall detail, and some items on the floor

People talking in an art gallery with blank and textured paintings on the wall.

Three blank canvas paintings hung on a light-colored wall in a room, with a doorway leading to a dining area with black chairs and a window.

A cozy living space with a decorated hallway leading to a windowed room. The hallway features artwork, a small table with a ladybug decoration, and a tall, covered plant stand with a jar of dried flowers.

A woman looking at a series of abstract paintings on a white gallery wall, holding a glass of champagne.

People viewing abstract artwork at an art gallery, with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a brick wall at the bottom of the white wall.

An interior hallway with a partial view of a group of people conversing in a room. The hallway has a white door with glass panels, a wall-mounted light, and a modern abstract painting. The floor features beige tiles with geometric patterns.

Group of people standing in a hallway, engaged in conversation, some holding drinks.

A corner of a room with a white door frame, a artist canvas on the wall, a window with a plant and picture frame on the windowsill, and a radiator below the window.

A table set up with multiple empty champagne flutes, various appetizer plates, and small jars of condiments or spreads at a gathering or party.

View through an open door into a sunlit indoor garden with potted plants, trees, and large windows.

Photos by Theodor Böhm