STEFAN KNAUF born *1990 in Munich. Lives and works in Berlin.
Education
2019 Made Labs Formafantasma & Fernando Laposse, Academy of Fine Arts, Siracusa, Sicily
2016–2018 MFA Speculative Design with Prof. Axel Kufus & Prof. Stephan Porombka, UdK
2010–2017 MA Fine Arts, Meisterschüler, Prof. Manfred Pernice & Michaela Meise, UdK Berlin
2013–2014 Columbia University New York City, USA
Solo – Exhibitions
2019 ‚Oscar Columno’ Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
Group Exhibtions
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, Milano (IT)
2017 Wenn der Pfau weint, group exhibition, Galerie 7 Türen, Hamburg (DE)
2016 Hot, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (DE)
2015 Höhenrausch Festival, Linz (AT)
2015 Aqua con crete, SEZ Berlin, Klasse Manfred Pernice (DE)
2013 Votre Faust, Opera, Henri Pousseur, Stage Design, Directed by Aliénor Dauchez, Kammeropera Berlin, Radialsystem, 2013, 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)
Awards
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, city of Würzburg (DE)
Publication (selection)
2019 ‘Analogies between the built environment and contemporary art’ Princeton University, NJ (US)
2019 ‘Stefan Knauf in Conversation with Margit J. Mayer’ Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
Publications
2018 ‘Ich bin ein Riss, ich will durch Wände gehen’ exhibition catalogue, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2018 ‘Paradise is now!’ catalogue for exhibition Paradise is now!, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2018 ‘Indie Mag’ magazine, about nonsense, studiosacrale
2018 ‘Numero homme’ magazine, on beauty
2017 ‘Designreport’ Form follows future, Fraunhofer, Frankfurt am Main
2013 ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin’ Hahn im Kork, Heft 49/2013, München
2013 ‘Frieze Art Magazine’ Does Berlin Need A New Art School?, Berlin
„Stefan Knauf’s work embodies a unique vision of spatial continuity employing formal displacement and the emptying out of architectural conventions as key strategies. One of his most recent works, the installation Oscar Columno (2019) displayed at Robert Grunenberg Gallery in Berlin, evokes the modernist entryways of Milan. These transitional spaces offered a starting point for a radical transformation achieved by deploying voided columns of metal and sheetrock in the gallery space. “Oscar Columno” can be regarded as a kind of mythical figure who presides over the space, a sort of genius loci who provides the title for this work, harking back to childhood memories of the artist, whose family is half from Milan, half from Munich. Thus subjective memory and objective construction fuse in these in-between areas, which participate in a kind of displaced screen memory, which itself is based on an act of material, formal and architectonic dislocation. Yet architecture is not the only inspiration for Knauf; landscapes of memory of the Bavarian countryside, as well as interiors and design objects, are all transmuted into installations and sculptural explorations, often made of unexpected or seemingly archaic materials such as stone and bronze.
—Daniel Sherer, 2019
2018 ‘Ich bin ein Riss, ich will durch Wände gehen’ exhibition catalogue, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2018 ‘Paradise is now!’ catalogue for exhibition Paradise is now!, Salon Dahlmann Berlin
2018 ‘Indie Mag’ magazine, about nonsense, studiosacrale
2018 ‘Numero homme’ magazine, on beauty
2017 ‘Designreport’ Form follows future, Fraunhofer, Frankfurt am Main
2013 ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin’ Hahn im Kork, Heft 49/2013, München
2013 ‘Frieze Art Magazine’ Does Berlin Need A New Art School?, Berlin