Anselm Reyle’s practice revolves around the transformation of everyday and industrial materials into striking compositions, reinterpreting modernist traditions. He describes materials as his vocabulary, drawn to their seductive qualities, whether neon, Mylar foil, or industrial lacquer. His works often contrasts these artificial, urban materials with organic elements like clay and burlap, creating an unique dynamic between the natural and the manufactured. In Babylon Fading, Reyle expands on these ideas, bringing together a selection of works that blur distinctions between painting, sculpture, and installation.
Babylon Fading
Galerie Ron Mandos is proud to present Babylon Fading, a solo exhibition by Anselm Reyle. Known for his use of found materials, neon lights, and high-gloss industrial finishes, Reyle examines the legacy of abstraction and modernist aesthetics in contemporary art. Babylon Fading runs from March 23 to May 11, 2025. It is Reyle’s first exhibition at the gallery.
His mixed-media canvases integrate reflective and iridescent surfaces, challenging a perceived hierarchy between high art and decorative effects. Reyle recalls that during his studies, aesthetic “effects” were often dismissed, but he found himself drawn to them, recognizing their ability to generate emotion and intrigue.
“Material is my vocabulary—unlike digital artists, for example. First and foremost, I work with materials that fascinate me. But it’s not just me—these materials captivate many people. Silver foil and neon are designed to seduce; they seduced me, and ever since, I have been using them in my work. We encounter them in urban spaces, like shop windows. Recently, I’ve also been exploring natural materials, such as clay for ceramics or burlap for paintings, and letting them collide with my artificial materials—much like how I handle color.” – Anselm Reyle
Untitled, 2025 | Mixed media, neon cable, acrylic glass | 96 x 81 x 24 cm
Anselm Reyle
On Demon Wings, 2024 | Glazed ceramics, plinth acrylic glass (optional with neon tube) | 110 x Ø 54 cm (Height with neon tube 160 cm)
Anselm Reyle
His sculptural works, such as On Demon Wings (2024) and Hellion (2023), reference the Fat Lava ceramics of the 1970s (originally mass-produced items with psychedelic glazes) which he scales up and reworks with gestural interventions and holes, an homage to Lucio Fontana.
Meanwhile, Straw Bale (2022), a found-object sculpture encased in neon-green acrylic glass, exemplifies his interest in transforming mundane forms into futuristic artifacts, a method he first experimented with when painting an antique wagon wheel neon yellow, challenging its historical connotations.
Straw Bale, 2022 | Found object, chrome lacquer, acrylic glass | 48 x 96 x 64 cm
Anselm Reyle
The title Babylon Fading is borrowed from a song by The Doors, whose dystopian, psychedelic sound reflects impermanence and transition; themes that resonate within the exhibition. Reyle’s relationship with music is deeply embedded in his creative process; his studio is filled with music memorabilia, and his early teenage years were shaped by an obsession with The Doors, later shifting toward punk and heavy metal. His aesthetic influences extend across movements such as hard-edged abstraction (Kenneth Noland, Otto Freundlich), the industrial minimalism of the Zero group, and the conceptual interventions of Pop Art. While his work acknowledges modernist traditions, it also engages with pop culture and subcultures, creating a space where these seemingly disparate influences coexist.
Untitled, 2022 | Mixed media, neon, cable, acrylic glass | 174 x 153 x 30 cm
Anselm Reyle
Reyle’s work consistently interrogates the boundaries between high and low culture, fine art and mass production. His neon installations embrace the commercial language of signage but strip it of its functional intent. His Mylar foil works—crumpled, encased in acrylic glass—explore the tension between disposable materiality and the permanence of painting and sculpture. He describes his engagement with the ready-made as a practice of transformation, altering found objects through changes in material, surface, or scale, elevating them into what he calls “aura-like” sculptures. While a critique of consumer culture is implicit in his work, his primary focus is on challenging the dogmas of the art world, by questioning what an abstract painting is “allowed” to do.
Reyle’s work consistently interrogates the boundaries between high and low culture, fine art and mass production. His neon installations embrace the commercial language of signage but strip it of its functional intent. His Mylar foil works—crumpled, encased in acrylic glass—explore the tension between disposable materiality and the permanence of painting and sculpture. He describes his engagement with the ready-made as a practice of transformation, altering found objects through changes in material, surface, or scale, elevating them into what he calls “aura-like” sculptures. While a critique of consumer culture is implicit in his work, his primary focus is on challenging the dogmas of the art world, by questioning what an abstract painting is “allowed” to do.
Untitled, 2025 | Neon, cables, chains, transformer | Variable in size
Anselm Reyle
Anselm Reyle, photo by Jonathan de Waart
About the Artist
Anselm Reyle (b. 1970, Tübingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe before moving to Berlin in 1997. Reyle is known for his large-scale paintings and sculptural installations, often incorporating Mylar foil, mirrors, and neon lights. His work examines the aesthetics of modernism through a contemporary lens, merging industrial materials with references to historical abstraction.
His work has been exhibited at institutions such as Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunsthalle Tübingen, and Deichtorhallen Hamburg. It is included in major collections, including the Centre Pompidou, the Pinault Collection, and the Saatchi Gallery. Since 2009, Reyle has been a professor at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg).
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