Past Residents
Past Resident2014: Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of Austria
Tobias Pils
Tobias Pils’s working method is characterized by the fact that when beginning a new piece of work he attempts to forget all past works, and engages with a motif. This motif can be anything from a traditional allegory to an abstract rhythm or harmony. His pictorial language as developed in recent years combines expressive elements with geometric structures such as grids, but never quite cuts the link with representation despite its dominant tendency towards abstraction. Intuition, inspiration and individuality are criteria relevant to Pils’s painterly oeuvre, and form the basis of his understanding of painting as a language and means of expression.
Tobias Pils (born 1971 in Linz) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. His selected exhibitions and projects include: Secession, Vienna, 2013; Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, 2012; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York City, 2011; Tenda Gialla, Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb, 2010; Beijing Biennale, NAMOC Museum, Beijing; Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul; Gironcoli Museum, Herberstein; Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2008; Tresor BA Kunstforum, Vienna and Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, 2007. Pils lives and works in Vienna.
Tobias Pilsc, Staircase - Secession, 2013, Glaze painting on ceramic tiles. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Secession, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 59 1/2 x 59 1/10 in. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 70 4/5 x 67 in. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 90 1/2 x 72 4/5 in. Courtesy of the artist
Residents from Austria
Past Resident2014: Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community Visual Arts Department
Manor Grunewald
Manor Grunewald is first and foremost as a painter, although he is also active in the fields of sculpture, installation and prints. His work is characterised by the constant analysis of the development of the pictorial in our daily environment. He finds and collects the sources of his images everywhere in daily life: in newspapers, advertising, books, comics, digital media and even illustrations of biological microcosms and macrocosms. His image archive serves as a source of inspiration, and his found pictorial material is often altered, partially on purpose and in some cases arbitrarily, by copying, enlarging or collaging. The artist thus creates new pictorial information, which is largely free of cognitively controlled processes and which reveal the unfamiliar, allowing this to become the content of his painting.
Manor Grunewald’s works have been exhibited across Europe and in the United States. In 2011, he was nominated for the Young Belgian Painters Prize at BOZAR. Recently, he has completed solo projects at Arco Madrid, Volta New York and Volta 9, Basel. Grunewald has presented recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne. He will take part in a group exhibition with Evan Gruzis and Christian Vetter at Super Dakota Gallery, Brussels in April 2014.
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne
Manor Grunewald, Life's a beach - grey, 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, lacquer, paper, uv print on wood, 71 × 47 in. (180.34 × 119.38 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Manor Grunewald, Untitled (Organic Mess #2), 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, silkscreen, foil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 27 1/5 in. Courtesy of the artist
Manor Grunewald, Sloping Attempt (Atom Ant), 2013, Wood, epoxy, plaster, oil, spray paint, metal, foam, 55 1/2 x 50 3/4 x 10 in. Courtesy of the artist
Residents from Belgium
Past Resident2014: KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Axel Töpfer
Axel Töpfer uses photographs, text and objects to construct imaginary events through an extension of narrative space. The work is structured so that the viewer performs the movement to assemble each story out of its parts. Töpfer continuously searches for instruments of inspiration such as: a late completion about space on Fotodinamismo Futurista by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Secret Notes by Josef Albers and On Dimension Zero or Why Structural Cinema is Narrative by George Maciunas. He believes magic can be achieved through stuttering and repetition.
Axel Töpfer (born 1977 in Königs Wusterhausen) is Director of the Laboratory for Visibility Hy Brasil since 2012, Co-founder of the network Videoklub (2004) and a member of zeitgenossen since 2000. He studied media art, photography and typography at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and sculpture and film at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Vienna. Töpfer works on the island of Hy Brasil and is living in Ulthar.
Axel Töpfer, Mitsubishi Dock Yard Nagasaki, 2010, Installation of 81 postcards. Courtesy of the artist and Photomuseum Braunschweig
Axel Töpfer, To Say I am still alive i wonder if you are, 2008, Installation of 51 postcards. Courtesy of the artist and Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
Axel Töpfer, Lieses Haus Horcht, 2013, Narrative Installation. Courtesy of the artist and Wolkenhof Murrhardt
Axel Töpfer, Neko Yashiki, 2012, Narrative Installation and Nishinomiya Funasaka Biennale. Courtesy of the artist
Axel Töpfer, A Landrara, 2013, Structural narrative of 8 pictures. Courtesy of the artist
