Beste Freunde Conny Maier

Conny Maier Beste Freunde at Ruttkowski;68 presents the 5th solo exhibition by Conny Maier (b. Berlin) in Düsseldorf.

“Beste Freunde” continues Conny Maier’s long-standing investigation into the dialectic of domination and subjugation. The central motif of her artistic reflection on power, obedience, and control is the German Shepherd—a dog breed charged with countless connotations and stereotypes. In Maier’s works, the animals appear both as obedient tools for enforcing human claims to power and as vehicles for reflecting on subtle parallels between the training of dogs and the socialization of humans. Maier’s exaggerated, sometimes grotesque depictions point to the mechanisms that determine social coexistence. They outline a system that relies on conformity and is maintained by supposed virtues such as obedience, discipline, loyalty, and a sense of duty. In her typical, ironic and subversive visual language, Conny Maier exposes asymmetrical power relations between the individual and authority, forcing viewers to question their own patterns of behavior and reflect on the possibility of change and resistance.

Text: Daniela Yvonne Baumann

Opening reception        28/03/2025       6-8pm

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