Stefan Brüggemann

Stefan Brüggemann presents Extreme Words (Works on Paper), an exhibition of recent works on paper that offer an intimate and raw extension of his artistic practice. Comprised of A4 sheets, these works function not as preparatory sketches, but as the aftermath of painting—spaces where thought, residue, and impulse are released once the painted work is complete.

Created across Brüggemann’s three studios in London, Ibiza, and Mexico City, the series captures a process of free debris: ideas discharged without hierarchy or correction. Using a range of papers in different colors and textures, the artist works with graphite, oil stick, and permanent markers, allowing words, marks, and gestures to collide at full speed.

In these works, writing becomes physical and unstable. Language is pushed toward abstraction, stretched to the point where meaning begins to erode. Words lose their communicative function and instead operate as material, rhythm, and trace—reflecting the broader diminishing and exhaustion of language in contemporary society.

Executed in what Brüggemann describes as a “full speed mode,” the drawings privilege emotion and observation over rationalization. Thought is not refined but exposed; gesture precedes control. The result is a body of work that oscillates between urgency and collapse, clarity and noise—continuing Brüggemann’s long-standing investigation into text, belief, and the limits of representation.

Extreme Words (Works on Paper) situates the act of writing not as explanation, but as impact—an extreme and vulnerable zone where language falters and emotion takes over.

— Galería de Arte Mexicano