no medium is as ambivalent, complex, unpredictable and at the same time as formative as art.

Maik Buttler's work approaches the essence of human existence from different perspectives, freed from fashions and the ballast of civilization.
He seems to be searching for what makes a person who is thrown back on himself, what has always defined him, his basic needs, which have existed since time immemorial and remain valid, placing him in the becoming and passing of life.
His installation- and picturesque-centric works appear correspondingly reduced, sometimes almost archaic, for example, when he addresses the need for protection and refuge in a tent construction that looks like a raft, seemingly primitive and yet with an impressive wealth of lovingly crafted details. The symbol explains itself without words, allowing the viewer not only to understand it intellectually, but to experience it almost sensually.
In his scenic works, Buttler places the human being in the course of evolution, repeatedly returning to the theme of the skull and cleverly reflecting its symbolic power. After all, the head is crucial to man's sense of identity and, reduced to its bony skeleton, it also indicates that man is only a small developmental step away from the animal world. - Dr. Felix Brosius