Max Goemann’s “Monkey Wrench” Opens at BRUNG Gallery

BRUNG Gallery is pleased to present Monkey Wrench, a new solo exhibition by German artist Max Goemann. Drawing inspiration from the mythology of the American Wild West and the countercultural spirit of Edward Abbey’s novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, the exhibition explores what rebellion looks like in the 21st century. Through paintings and prints, Goemann reimagines cowboys as modern outlaws, confronting questions of consumerism, freedom, civil disobedience, and the consequences of technological progress.

Reimagining the Wild West

In Monkey Wrench, the visual language of the Western is transported into the present day. Horses chase delivery vans instead of stagecoaches, bank robberies unfold against the backdrop of global logistics, and fictional outlaw gangs navigate a landscape dominated by corporations rather than frontier towns. Familiar symbols of the Wild West become tools for reflecting on today’s society, where economic systems, consumer culture, and technological expansion have reshaped our understanding of freedom.

Rather than romanticizing crime, Goemann uses these narratives to expose their contradictions. Violence and desire, heroism and absurdity, rebellion and responsibility coexist within his compositions, inviting viewers to question where the boundaries between justice and resistance lie.

Civil Disobedience in an Age of Consumption

Central to the exhibition are two interconnected bodies of work: Hell or High Water and Brave Cowboy. Together, they investigate the tension between the individual and increasingly complex systems of power.

In Hell or High Water, fictional heists and raids become metaphors for a society driven by material desire. Objects themselves become protagonists—symbols of value, temptation, and conflict. By framing modern delivery vehicles, banks, and logistics networks through the visual vocabulary of Western cinema, Goemann highlights the surreal nature of contemporary consumer culture while asking difficult questions about the ethics of civil disobedience.

Brave Cowboy, inspired by Edward Abbey’s novel of the same name, reflects on the struggle between individual freedom and unstoppable modernization. Like Abbey’s protagonist Jack Burns, Goemann’s imagined figures refuse to fully adapt to a world increasingly governed by technology, efficiency, and conformity. Their resistance is both poetic and tragic—a reminder that progress often comes at the cost of independence.

Between Myth and Contemporary Reality

Goemann’s works blur the line between fiction and reality. The recurring gang of invented characters transforms the exhibition into an ongoing narrative, where each painting contributes another chapter to a larger story. Cowboys become antiheroes navigating Amazon delivery routes instead of desert landscapes, while untouched wilderness stands in stark contrast to the relentless expansion of modern infrastructure.

This interplay between mythology and the present creates an atmosphere that is at once humorous, cinematic, and unsettling. The exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider familiar cultural symbols—not as nostalgic references, but as mirrors reflecting contemporary questions about ownership, exploitation, and personal freedom.

About the Artist

Max Goemann’s practice combines painting and printmaking with narrative storytelling. His work draws from literature, popular culture, and historical imagery, transforming them into contemporary visual allegories. By appropriating the iconography of the American West, he explores broader social and political themes while maintaining a playful balance between irony and sincerity.

For Monkey Wrench, Goemann expands his practice across both unique paintings and editions, allowing the exhibition to unfold as a cohesive visual universe while remaining accessible through collectible prints and artist publications.

An Invitation to Question the Frontier

With Monkey Wrench, BRUNG Gallery presents an exhibition that reconsiders one of the most enduring myths of Western culture. Max Goemann demonstrates that the frontier has not disappeared—it has simply changed shape. Today, it exists within supply chains, corporate infrastructures, and the systems that quietly organize everyday life.

By placing cowboys alongside delivery vans and wilderness beside industrial progress, Monkey Wrench asks timeless questions in an unmistakably contemporary language: What does freedom mean today? Who are today’s outlaws? And when does resistance become necessary?

The exhibition invites visitors to step into Goemann’s imagined world, where the Wild West is no longer a place of the past, but a lens through which to examine the present.

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OPENINGS

February 2025