At the center of the work of Clemens Krauss is the human body. His paintings, installations and performances are processual, without any claim to completeness. Tereza de Arruda, curator, writes about Krauss that he is a “performer, who paints, a conceptualist, who performs. His field of work eludes clear demarcation.”
With his recent project, he poses the question of genre anew: his figures are no longer, as in classical painting, bound to the wall or canvas, but they are transferred to three-dimensional space. Nearly fully plastic, they lie in cabinets and thereby seem to elude a classification as painting. Thus, while his figures are executed in the material of painting, oil paint, on the other hand they bear clearly sculptural qualities because of their haptic character and their presentation in a freestanding medium. Their designation as “bodies” contributes further to the viewer’s irritation, in that it affirms their autonomous physicalness and at the same time raises the question of their nature, their degree of reality.
Clemens Krauss, born 1978 in Graz, Austria, studied Medicine, Fine Art and Science of Art in Graz, Vienna, Berlin and London. He lives and works in Berlin and Vienna. Since three years, he has been participating in international solo and group exhibitions, as this year in the exhibtion “Youth of Today” in Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main, and “Anstoss Berlin, Kunst macht Welt” in Haus am Waldsee, Berlin.
1979
born in Graz, Austria
MA Fine Art (Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London)
Fine Art (Academy of Fine Art, Berlin)
Medicine (University of Graz)
lives in Berlin
2006
A Space, part of the special guest program of the 4. Berlin Biennal, DNA-Gallery/ Berlin, (catalogue)
2005
new works, DNA-Gallery/ Berlin
2004
identicals, Gallery Dagmar Aichholzer/ Villach
consultation hour, Performance, Liverpool Biennial (with Unwetter)/ Liverpool,
The Bodybody-Problem, Gallery Kunst&Handel/ Graz (catalogue)
2003
consultation hour (with Unwetter), Gallery Ute Naven/ Oslo
Part of a slow Self-portrait, DNA-Gallery/ Berlin, (catalogue)
2002
DNA-Performance, Makrographien, Gallery PIN/ Bielefeld
Group exhibitions (selection)
2006
ANSTOSS BERLIN, haus am waldsee, Berlin
THE YOUTH OF TODAY, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (catalogue)
2005
Rethink Freud – On the Pleasure of the Organic, art.es magazine/ Art Basel Miami
Unwetter hosts NGBK – NGBK hosts Unwetter, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst Berlin,
2. Berliner Kunstsalon (catalogue)
austrias, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn (catalogue)
Der Freie Wille, Arena/ Berlin (catalogue)
Come to Light, Cell Project Space/ London (catalogue)
2004
I’d like to look like my look-alike, Performance, Victoria Miro Gallery/ London
All about Berlin, Kulturfabrik WhiteBox/ Munich
consultation hour, Performance (with Unwetter), Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart/ Berlin
2003
toponymics – renaming the main square of Graz, Graz (European Capital of Culture 2003), (catalogue)
Paramorphosen, Pardiesprojekt Alexanderplatz/ Berlin (catalogue + DVD)
Angewandte Analysen, Berliner Kunstprojekt/ Berlin
consultation hour, Sparwasser HQ/ Berlin
2002
T:ERROR, Les Frigo/ Paris (catalogue)
remember my name, Liverpool Biennial/ Liverpool (catalogue)
