ABOUT
Markus Böhler, working quietly in the Algarve.
Markus Böhler is an internationally experienced artist and art lecturer. He studied communication design and illustration in Hamburg and completed his Master of Fine Arts at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, USA, made possible by a Fulbright scholarship. A member of the BBK since 1996, he looks back on a career spanning several decades, including years as the dean of an art academy in Hamburg.
Since 2021 he has lived and worked in the Algarve, where he also offers workshops in calligraphy, collage and manual printing at his studio, Casa PlantArte near Tavira.
SILENT STORIES
Between image and text.
Böhler photographs without interfering — discreetly, almost as if on the phone — so that people are never posing. Only afterwards does he approach them, show the images and ask permission. These everyday encounters at markets, in cafés and narrow alleys form the series Portuguese Originals.
Added to this is a background that still shapes his work: a trained typesetter, he worked with lead and wooden letters before the early Macintosh. For him, typography is not an afterthought but an artistic field in its own right — something that carries meaning even when it is not read.
Silent Stories · Anabela Gaspar
SELECTED · SINCE 1992
Exhibitions
A selection of solo (S) and group (G) exhibitions since 1992.
2026
Group
Reqollé Gallery · Lisbon, Portugal
Solo
Galeria Das Borboleta · Tavira, Portugal
Two-person
Galeria NOVA, Museu do Traje · São Brás de Alportel, Portugal
Group
Galeria República 14 · Olhão, Portugal
2025
Solo
Galeria ARTESIS · Tavira, Portugal
Group
Galeria ARTESIS · Tavira, Portugal
Group
Galeria ARTESIS · Tavira, Portugal
2016–2025
Group
Stiftung Seelsorge · Wuppertal, Germany
2007
Solo
Thousand Oaks Art Gallery · Berkeley, USA
2006
Solo
Galerie Kunstwerkstätten Moorfleet · Hamburg, Germany
2003
Solo
Herz-Jesu-Church · Wuppertal, Germany
2002
Group
Städtische Galerie Fürstenwalde/Spree · Fürstenwalde, Germany
2001
Group
Z-Bau-Galerie · Nuremberg, Germany
Solo
Hamburgische Kulturstiftung · Hamburg, Germany
Solo
planbusiness · Hamburg, Germany
1999
Solo
Galerie atelier libre · Ottweiler, Germany
1998
Solo
Galerie 48 · Saarbrücken, Germany
Group
Saarland Museum · Saarbrücken, Germany
Solo
Geschäftshaus Fa. Boeker · Dortmund, Germany
1997
Group
KX-Galerie · Hamburg, Germany
Group
Letzenburger Artisten Center · Luxembourg
1996
Solo
Galerie Thomas Gehrke · Hamburg, Germany
1995
Group
Southern Exposure · San Francisco, USA
Solo
Door 3 Gallery · Oakland, USA
1994
Solo
Space Q Gallery · Oakland, USA
Education & Training
Master of Fine Arts, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, USA — with David Maxim, Prof. Lewis de Soto, Prof. Frances McCormack
Illustration & Communication Design, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences — with Prof. Eun Nim Ro, Prof. Klaus Waschk, Prof. J. Seuss
Specialised secondary school for design Albrecht-Dürer, Düsseldorf
Vocational training as typographer and typesetter
Scholarships & Activities
Member of the BBK, professional association of visual artists, Germany
Dean of school, Kunstschule Wandsbek, Hamburg
Lecturer in Painting, Design Basics and Screen Design, Kunstschule Wandsbek, Hamburg
Promotion of art and culture by the Hamburg Cultural Foundation
Enhancement Grant, IIE — Institute of International Education, New York
Government scholarship, Fulbright Commission, Germany
Collections
Industrie- und Handelskammer, Saarbrücken, Germany
Kunstauktion Stiftung Seelsorge, Wuppertal, Germany
Publications
FarbBildRaum M. Böhler, Kilam Verlag
visual_continuity², Markus Böhler, planbusiness edition