the burden of expectations / 1 Painting

Manuela Karin Knaut is best known for her paintings and art installations, but she also works with a wider range of media, including collages, photography and architectural objects. Her art is primarily expressionistic, a cypher for memories and emotions that can be frank and poetic as well as intimate and universal. Infused with colour and created with eloquent brushstrokes, Knaut´s often huge semi-abstract canvases and objects are charged with an explosive energy. Knaut´s work focuses on contemporary issues and universal themes regarding the human condition, such as home, love, loss and loneliness. She always finds inspiration for her multi-faceted works in being a seeker and a collector of things, and in passionately observing everyday life. The artist often uses personal situations, which then find their way into diverse series of her work. She deliberately makes room for a seemingly purposeless play with all sorts of objects and other materials. At first glance, these pieces of art present themselves in a light and blunt manner, but are never an accidental creation. Manuela Knaut’s work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1990 as well as art performances all over Europe and further abroad, including the Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg (South Africa), La Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Cachan (France), Kunsthalle Cloppenburg, Community Center Art Gallery, Kiryat Tivon (Israel), Jim Weber Fine Art Gallery,( Marble Falls, USA), Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Art (Bishkek, Kyrgyztan), Galerie VorOrtOst Leipzig, Palais Rastede, Galerie im Stammelbachspeicher (Hildesheim), Museum of the Town of Bad Hersfeld, Ostrale / International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts (Dresden), Kunst Quartier (Osnabrück), Kunstsalon Schopenhauer (Frankfurt on the Main), Galerie Artlantis (Bad Homburg), Galerie Jaeschke (Braunschweig). Her work is found in public and private collections worldwide.