Stefan
Knauf

Minimalist art exhibit with crumpled silver metal sculptures and wrinkled metallic wall panels in a white gallery with sand-covered floor.

Stefan Knauf, Birds don’t cry, Installation View, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, 2022

A man sitting in a workshop next to a large sculpture of a cactus made of metallic material, with a ladder and various tools and objects on the floor around him, including a red propane tank.

was born in Munich (DE) in 1990. He lives and works in Berlin (DE).

Knauf explores the ideological and colonial structures that continuously shape the world through design and space-making practices, particularly with regard to the landscape and the natural world. His diverse practice probes the history of botany, migration, trade, science, and architecture to uncover concrete paradoxes in our misperception of nature as something inherently stable, wild, or uncultured. Knauf’s recent research has led him to countless ecosystem restoration initiatives around the world, where governments and companies are effectively attempting to “re-create” previously destroyed or eroded natural environments.

With these various symbolic and formal references, Knauf outlines a political history of human geoengineering and points to how our understanding of nature, technology, and their interrelation continue to blur the lines between the natural and artificial.
2026 When Beginnings End, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE
2025 Forever Now, Haus Coburg – Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst (DE)
2023 Diorama, Eyes Only Gallery, with Robert Grunenberg, Munich (DE)
2022 Birds don’t cry, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2019 Oscar Columno’, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
Mercedes-Benz Art Collection (DE)
Miettinen Collection, Berlin (DE)
Sammlung Peters-Messer Berlin/Viersen (DE)
2025 Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki (FI)
2025 Where are we now, Philara Düsseldorf (DE)
2025 Hallen 06, Wilhelmhallen, Art Week Berlin (DE)
2025 Nous n’irons plus au bois…, Robert Grunenberg Berlin (DE)
2025 A Little Madness in the Spring, Miettinen Collection/Sotheby’s Berlin (DE)
2024 Paradies, D.D.D.D., New York (US)
2024 NACHTS WACH, Livie Gallery Zurich (CH)
2024 Fruits of Labor, Saint Anne Gallery, Paris (FR)
2023 IMAGINE — 10 Unrealized Projects, Robert Grunenberg (DE)
2021 ATTACCATUTTO, fructa space, Munich (DE)
2020 Sincere Intentions, Robert Grunenberg (DE)
2018 Ich bin ein Riss, ich will durch Wände gehen, Salon Dahlmann, Berlin (DE)
2018 Losing my Virginity, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2018 Paradise is now, Salon Dahlmann & Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2018 Salone del Mobile, Chezplinio, Milan (IT)
2017 Wenn der Pfau weint, group exhibition, Galerie 7 Türen, Hamburg (DE)
2016 Hot, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (DE)
2015 Höhenrausch Festival, Linz (AU)
2015 Aqua con crete, SEZ, Klasse Manfred Pernice, Berlin (DE)
2013 Votre Faust, Opera, Henri Pousseur, Stage Design, Directed by Aliénor Dauchez, Kammeropera Berlin (DE)
2013 Radialsystem, Theater Basel, Stadttheater (DE & CH)
2013 Shorting Art, lecture performance, former west symposium Haus der Kulturen der Welt, HKW, Berlin; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kopenhagen (DE & DK)
Made Labs Formafantasma & Fernando Laposse, Academy of Fine Arts, Sicily, (IT)
Master of Arts, Speculative Design, Universität der Künste, Berlin, (DE)
Master of Arts, Fine Arts, Universität der Künste, Berlin, (DE)
Bachelor of Arts, Columbia University, New York, (US)
2025 Forever Now, Distanz, Berlin
2024 Der Silberglanz natürlicher Dinge, Livie Gallery, Zürich
2023 The Series, The Steidz, Paris
2019 Analogies between the built environment and contemporary art, Princeton University
2018 Paradise is now! Palm Tree in Art, catalog for the exhibition, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2018 Ich bin ein Riss, ich will durch Wände gehen, catalog for the exhibition, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2017 Hanke-Förster-Preis, award for sculpture of the Hanke Förster foundation, Berlin, (DE)
2017 Form follows future, scholarship of Fraunhofer Institut, ISE Freiburg, (DE)
2012 Helmut-Thoma-Preis, award for sculpture of the Helmut Thoma foundation, Berlin, (DE)
2009 Crossmedia Award, award for shortfilms, LBS, Munich, (DE)
2009 Film grant for shortfilm, Würzburg, (DE)
Peters-Messer Art Collection, Berlin/Viersen (DE)
Miettinen Collection, Berlin (DE)
Mimi Dusselier and Bernard Soens Art Collection, Brüssel (BE)
Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Stuttgart (DE)
2024 Absent Context, Princeton School of Architecture, NJ (USA)
2022 History of Landscape, Musée Soulages, Rodez (FR)
2021 On Romanticism, Princeton School of Architecture, NJ (USA)
2019 Lambs and Landscape, Princeton School of Architecture, NJ (USA)
2013 Money on Monday, University of the Arts, Berlin (DE)
read less
- 2025 INTERVIEW «Ich will den Moment der Irritation» – Der Künstler Stefan Knauf erschafft in Berlin Kakteen aus Stahl. Ein Atelierbesuch, NZZ am Sonntag Magazin
- 2025 Kunstfestival „Hallen 06“ Größe als Alleinstellungsmerkmal, taz
- 2025 „Forever Again“: Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst zeigt Einzelausstellung des Berliner Künstlers Stefan Knauf, DelmenNews
- 2025 Haus Coburg zeigt Einzelausstellung von Stefan Knauf, Stadt Delmenhorst
- 2025 „Forever Again“: Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst zeigt Einzelausstellung des Berliner Künstlers Stefan Knauf, DelmeNews.de
- 2025 Kunst zum Nachdenken: Berliner Künstler zeigt Zusammenhang von Natur und Verlust in Delmenhorst, DK Online
- 2023 Highlights Art Düsseldorf, thedorf.de
- 2023 8 Highlights der Kunstmesse Art Düsseldorf, Gallerytalk.de
- 2020On Pillar and Plants, Numero Berlin Nr. 12 Spring / Summer 21
- 2019 Stefan Knauf in Conversation with Margit J. Mayer,Robert Grunenberg
- 2018About nonsense, Studio Sacrale,Indie Mag magazine
- 2018 On Beauty,Numero Homme magazine
- 2017 Designreport, Form follows future, Fraunhofer
- 2013 Hahn im Kork, Heft 49, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin
- 2013 Does Berlin Need A New Art School?, Frieze Art Magazine