Karsten Konrad
Karsten Konrad is a German sculptor whose abstract works address themes of identity, memory, materiality, structuralism, linguistics, as well as concepts from urbanity and urbanism.
Biography
Karsten Konrad studied art at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and sculpture at both Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and the Royal College of Art in London. During the late 1980s, he studied under English sculptor David Evison and Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović.Konrad's sculptures use everyday materials such as discarded furniture, mechanical objects and architectural elements. He re-purposes common items into installations, reliefs and collages. Some critics have described this approach as an "archaeology of the present."
His work has been exhibited in museums and institutions in Europe, North America and Asia, such as the Esbjerg Art Museum, the Berlin Academy of the Arts, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Helsinki Art Museum and the Berlinische Galerie. In 2012, Konrad received the Great Prize of the 53rd Belgrade October Salon for a site-specific art intervention at the Geozavod.
From 2010 to 2013, Konrad held academic positions at the Berlin University of the Arts and the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Since 2016, he has been a professor in the Sculpture Department of the University of the Arts in Berlin.
He has lived and worked in Berlin since 1993.