Since the 1980’s, Michael Krebber has been one of the central figures of the Cologne-based art scene and is internationally known for his influence on a new generation of artists for whom he is laying bare the conditions and conventions of the painting (and painter) by means of tentative gestural markings, evacuated canvases, diffident ready-mades, and for challenging traditional exhibition displays.
 
Krebber’s abstractions always appear to operate at the brink of disappearance as they continuously substitute ciphers of doubt, delay, withdrawal, and hesitation for the medium’s ancestral values of expression, plenitude, and presentences.
 
Michael Krebber taught at the Städelschule in Frankfurt from 2002 to 2016.  
 
In 2016, he moved from Cologne to New York, and presented the following year at Galerie Chantal Crousel his very first series of paintings produced in his Soho studio.

He has has had major solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (2017); Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2016); CAPC, Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2012); Real Fine Arts, New York (2011); International Project Space, Birmingham (2010); Miami City Ballet, Berlin (2010); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln (2008); The McAllister Institute, New York (2006); Secession, Vienna (2005); The Top Room, London (2001), among others.

Michael Krebber was also featured in several international group shows: The Kitchen, New York (2020); The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2019); Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2018); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2015); Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2015); CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2011); Bergen Kunsthall (2010); De Appel, Amsterdam (2008); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2006); Tate, Liverpool (2004); Secession, Vienna (2002); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2000); Kunstverein, Münich (1997).

His works have joined the collections of the The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux; Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Pinault Collection, Venice; Cranford Collection, London; Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt am Main; Bonnefantenmuseum, Masstricht; among others.