Büttner’s work addresses subjective experience and confronts it with a dense web of art historical and cultural associations. She references traditional motifs of Christian iconography as well as contemporary discourses and recent art historical positions. For example, she engages intensively with Christian monastic culture and with Arte Povera, which she links through the concept of poverty.

Büttner’s work encompasses prints, drawings, painting and reverse glass painting, sculpture, textiles, installation, photography, video and performance – a remarkable variety of media and materials. The juxtaposition of the individual imprint of artisanship with works that deemphasise the authorship of the artist is characteristic for her approach.

Andrea Büttner was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2017 and honoured with several international awards. She studied visual arts at the Universität der Künste in Berlin as well as philosophy and art history at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and at Humboldt-Universität Berlin. In 2008 she was awarded her PhD from the Royal College of Art for her dissertation Perspectives on Shame and Art. Since 2017 Büttner is professor for Art in Contemporary Context at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, recently for example at Kunstmuseum Basel, K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Bergen Kunsthall, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Hammer Museum Los Angeles, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Museum Ludwig Cologne, MMK Frankfurt am Main, Walker Art Center Minneapolis. She participated at Documenta 13 in Kassel and Kabul, at the 33rd and 29th São Paulo Biennale and at the British Art Show 8. Her work is represented in important collections including the Tate in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Hamburger Kunsthalle or the Reina Sofia in Madrid.