Antonio Marra (*1959)
LA BELLA FIGURA
19.04.2026 - 21.06.2026
The internationally acclaimed artist Antonio Marra has already won the Audience Award twice at the Kunsthalle Messmer as part of the International Evard Prize ceremony, and once he also came second among the finalists.
The Messmer Gallery is therefore now dedicating a large solo exhibition to our public favorite with the title LA BELLA FIGURA Antonio Marra was born in Volturara Irpina, Italy, in 1959 and now lives and works in Offenbach am Main.
More than 50 solo exhibitions and a further 28 group exhibitions have made his oeuvre internationally visible – from New York via Shanghai, Jinan and Jiangxi to the Algarve, San Francisco, Venice, Mykonos and Vienna.
His work has also been presented in numerous cities in Germany, including Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
Everything in life has two sides: This experience seems to be the starting point for Antonio Marra’s kinetic art. The artist achieved international fame with his colorful, moving images. They also invite visitors to get involved in these surprising changes!
In his works, he stages a sophisticated play with perception and illusion, his pictures appearing like constructed pictorial spaces in which reality and imagination overlap and combine to create a multi-layered visual dialog.
The closer you get to them, the more they change : perspectives shift, structures emerge, new impressions arise. In this way, an ever-changing visual cosmos unfolds, which appears familiar and surprising at the same time and encourages the viewer to make up their own minds.
Questioning viewing habits and rediscovering the act of seeing
Marra draws on a formal vocabulary of clear geometric structures, lines and precisely placed areas of color, which in its consistency is reminiscent of the
tradition of Op Art and kinetic art. At the same time, his works are not limited to purely visual effects. Instead, they open up multi-layered pictorial spaces that set the viewer’s gaze in motion. As you look at them, the structure of the forms seems to rearrange itself again and again: Colors change their effect depending on the point of view, structures shift and seemingly stable orders begin to flow. This creates pictorial worlds that suggest permanent movement and invite the viewer to constantly discover new perspectives.
It is precisely this play of shifts and transitions between different levels that gives Marra’s work its particular uniqueness.
Immerse yourself in the changing worlds of this colorful and humorous artist!
past exhibitions
Yoshiyuki Miura
01.02. – 12.04.2026
André Evard (1876 – 1972)
30.11. – 25.01.2026
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