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CHRISTOPH M. LOOS

On Trees in Other Conditions

“Christoph Loos has been involved in an ongoing dialogue with the element of wood since the very beginning of his artistic career, and has examined it through the most diverse media. Over the course of the last ten years he has created woodcuts, sculptures, drawings and photographs.” This might serve as a simplified summary of his artistic work.
In fact, however, Christoph Loos has been methodically engaged in a pursuit to discover the many levels and the complexity of one topic in ever newer aspects: the tree as a metaphor for the existential manifestation of memory, time and progression, and the tree as a symbol of an entity in which the dialectic of shell and seed, inside and outside – through to the final degree of life and death – is apparent. The intensity and dedication with which Loos approaches the essence of the tree in its complex archaic conception may not be least of all a result of the fact that the artist is, on his mother’s side, the scion of an old dynasty of “wood barons”, in which a knowledge of this very special resource has been handed down over generations. The techniques that Loos makes use of are as diverse as the object itself. (…)

(Dr. Gabriele Uelsberg, Direktorin Rhein. LandesMuseum Bonn)

 

“But why is the impossible the thing the work longs for if it has become the concern of its own origin?”

(Maurice Blanchot, 1907–2003)

 

Curriculum Vitae

1959 Born in Bad Reichenhall
1979-81         Traveling-projects to Israel, Greece and South-America
1981-86 Political work in the Sozialistische Selbsthilfe Cologne (SSK)
1986-88 Apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker
1988-91 Studies of Sculpture at the Alanus-University of Arts Alfter/Bonn
1991-95 Studies of Philosophy at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum
1995-96 Studies of Graphic Art under Prof. F. Eggenschwiler at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
2002 Lecturer for Woodcut Printmaking at the European Academy of Fine Arts, Trier
2004 Senior-Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts at J.-Gutenberg-University, Mainz
2004-07 Dix-Foundation-Professor at the Academy of Art, Offenbach a.M.
2006 Founding of the Institut für Experimentelle TopoGraphien [IETG]
2008 Nomination Printmaking-Professorship at the School of Art, Yale University, USA
2008 Visiting-Professor at the Arts University College at Bournemouth, England
2009 Visiting-Professor (Research Fellow) at the University of Teesside, England
2010 Visiting-Professor Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Milano, Italy
2010 Nomination Grafik-Prof. a. d. Hochschule f. Grafik u. Buchkunst (HGB) Leipzig
2013 Visiting-Professor Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy
2013 Nomination Grafik-Prof. Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway
2014 Awarded to Doctor of Philosophy, Manchester School of Art at the MMU
Since 2019 Adjunct Professor Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Italy
Metafisica Povera or The Blind & Automatic Drawing Project

 

Award/Grant:

 

Hans-Thuar-Award, Bonn

Artist-in-Residence Scholarship, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (ACAC), Japan

Pollock-Krasner-Foundation-Grant, New York

Project Grant by “Verein Ausstellungshaus für Christliche Kunst”, Munich

 

List of exhibitions and publications

Solo Exhibition (Selection):

1996 “Hans-Thuar-Award”, Kunstmuseum Bonn
1997 “Wärmetod (I)”, Kunstverein Friedberg (C)
  “Wärmetod (I)”, Museum Abtei Liesborn
1998 “Wärmetod (I)”, Anhaltischer Kunstverein Dessau
  “Wärmetod (I)”, Städt. Galerie Mainz
2000 “ZimZum”, Städt. Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen (C)
  “ZimZum”, Universitätsmuseum Marburg (C)
2001 “ZimZum/Codex dissolutus”, Städt. Galerie Iserlohn (with Gereon Inger)
  “ZimZum”, Stadtmuseum Siegburg
  “Fluchtlinien”, Kunstverein Kapelle Weitendorf, Wismar (C)
  “Rarus”, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne
2003 “Romanzen und Matritzen”, Verein & Galerie für Original Radierung, Munich
2004 “Kette und Schuß”, Galerie Henseleit Buchholz, Cologne
2005 “Chiasma (II)”, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen (C)
  “Chiasma (II)”, Goethe-Institut Kyoto, Japan (C)
(Offical Contribution for the “Germany-Year in Japan 2005/2006”)
2006 “Nanna-Paradox”, Rheinisches LandesMuseum Bonn (C)
  “Nanna-Paradox”, Museum im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd
  “Nanna-Paradox”, Goethe-Institut Dublin
2007 “Pastorale”, Galerie Henseleit Buchholz, Cologne
2008 “Blind-Drawings”, Art Cabinet Hennig, Bonn
2010 “Noema/Holzschnitte”, Galerie semina rerum, Zürich
2011 “Causa sui (I)”, Galerie Julia Philippi, Heidelberg
  “Rosebud/Doppelgänger”, Städt. Galerie Essen, Schloß Borbeck
Site-specific installation in the lily pond of the palace garden
2012 “Hetero Topos”, Kunstverein Rastatt
2014 “Der Palast um 3 Uhr morgens (Ordo Inversus)”
Site-specific installation in the cloister of the monastery Alpirsbach
2015 “Codex Mundi”, The Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland
2016 “Stabat Mater (ad libitum)”, Landesmuseum Mainz
  “Dissimulatio”, Museum of Modern Art Cairo
2017 “Ostinato” (with Young-Jae Lee), Galerie Uhn, Königstein i. T.
  “Parusia – Die Idee in den Dingen”, Kloster Bentlage Rheine (C)
  “Parusia – Die Idee in den Dingen”, Cork Institute of Technology CIT, Ireland (C)
  “Parusia – Die Idee in den Dingen”, Städtische Galerie Iserlohn (C)
  “In Memoriam Kropotkin”, Galerie Philippi, Heidelberg
2018 “Parusia – Die Idee in den Dingen”, Stiftung Schloss und Park Benrath Düsseldorf (C)
  “Parusia – Die Idee in den Dingen”, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń (C)
2020 “Both Sides Now”, Galerie Melchior & Galerie Rasch, Kassel

 

Participation in Group Exhibitions (Selection):

1992 Kunststation St. Peter, Cologne
1993 “Ida-Gerhardi-Preis”, Städt. Galerie Lüdenscheid
1994 “Kunstpreis Landau”, Kunstverein Landau
1995 “bon direct”, Bonner Kunstverein (C)
  “Holz/Schnitte”, Gothaer Kunstforum Cologne (C)
(with G. Baselitz, F. Droese, M. Lüpertz etc.)
1997 “Querschnitt. Deutscher Holzschnitt heute”
Städt. Galerie Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach (C)
1998 “Querschnitt. Deutscher Holzschnitt heute”
Museum Zwickau, Städt. Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen, Städt. Galerie Iserlohn
  “Der ausgehöhlte Stamm” (Art and Cult Objects from Europe, Africa, Oceania), Städt. Museen Heilbronn (C)
  “Märkisches Stipendium”, Städt. Galerie Lüdenscheid
2000 “Letzte Nacht Erste Nacht”, Galerie der Künstler, Munich
  “Gegengift”, Schloß Waldthausen, Mainz
2001 “In Holz geschnitten” (Dürer, Gaugin, Penck u.d.A.), Museum Bochum (C)
2003 “Vernicular Spirit”, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Japan (C)
2004 “Atelier-Komplexe”, Galerie Henseleit Buchholz, Cologne
2007 “Hochdruckzone”, Städt. Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen (C)
2008 “Hochdruckzone”, Neue Sächsische Galerie Chemnitz (C)
2009 “Aus dem Stamm – Holzskulptur heute”, Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe (C)
  “Aus dem Stamm – Holzskulptur heute”, Kunstmuseum Singen (C)
  “Exhibition of competition work BBR”, Bundesarchiv Berlin
2010 “In spirit of Rubens and Contemporary Art”, Kunstverein Siegen
2011 “Zeitgenössische Positionen im Hochdruck”, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig
2012 “Montag ist erst übermorgen”, Kupferstichkabinett, Akademie d. Bild. Künste Wien
2014 “Große Geister”, Kunstmuseum Bonn (New presentation of the Permanent Collection)
2015 “Lichtsplitter”, Woodcuts from the collection, Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen
  “The 6th Beijing International Art Biennale”, National Art Museum of China (C)
2019 “Temporäre Installationen Orangerie”, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
2022 “Von der Fläche zum Raum – Bildhauerzeichnungen seit 1945”, Kunsthalle Mannheim
2023 “Immanuel Kant und die offenen Fragen”, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
2024 “KANT—Digitale Welten”, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin


(C) Catalogue/Artist Book
(F) Film Documentation/Artist Film

 

Work in Public Collections (Selection):

 

 Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen

 Kunsthalle Mannheim

 Kunstmuseum Bonn

 Rheinisches LandesMuseum Bonn

 Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen

 Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

 Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

 Folkwang Museum Essen

 Staatliches Museum Schwerin

 Kloster Bentlage Rheine

 Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl

 Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen

 Museum u. Galerie im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd

 Universitätsmuseum Marburg

 Kultusministerium Rheinland-Pfalz, Mainz

 Musée d’Art et d’Histoire Genf

 The Ashmolean, Universitätsmuseum Oxford

 New Haven, Yale University Arts L.

 Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (ACAC)

 

Christoph Loos