Collection

Maximilian Prüfer (born in Weilheim, Germany, in 1986) studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna and at the University of Applied Sciences in Augsburg design and communication strategies. His works are always a dialogue with nature—an attempt to make complex relationships visible by not only depicting natural processes but also acting as a co-creator. Prüfer works with insects, traces, time, and elements that elude total control. The result is not a finished image, but an open system: a kind of gestural coexistence of humans, nature, and history. His works exist in the tension between control and chance. The behavior of flies, for example, follows an inner logic that is revealed in the traces they leave behind. These micro-traces condense into larger structures reminiscent of cosmic maps or decayed landscapes. For the artist, this is a metaphor for our relationship to the world: we move within immense systems whose order we only understand fragmentarily – and yet we are part of them. At the same time, he uses the technique of “naturantypy” to make the movements of nature visible – as a kind of direct drawing of living things. Prüfer's approach is that true nature conservation does not come about through knowledge alone, but through fascination. The artist received a STRABAG ART Award recognition prize in 2025.