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Paul Knopf 




               With a background in architecture, Paul Knopf explores how form and materiality are connected to dreams, memory, and identity. Informed by building elements as well as domestic items and materials, his objects and sculptures are situated in the context of the home and its narrative as a self-made, Arcadian refuge in the digital age. He treats his works like digital objects whose surfaces are but an interchangeable image, i. e. a (photo-)texture applied afterward incongruent with the object’s shape and materiality. Yet, by visibly using temporary fasteners and DIY-joining techniques in a repairing and prosthetic manner, surfaces are treated like material skin instead of an image. The resulting instability of belonging is central to his work.


He had his first solo exhibition in Weimar in 2023 and was part of group exhibitions in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Kassel, Weimar, Zella-Mehlis, and Tokyo. He received a MS in Architecture (2024) from the University at Buffalo, SUNY (USA), a M.Sc. in Media Architecture (2023) and a B.Sc. in Architecture (2021) from Bauhaus-University Weimar (Germany). During this time, he received scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation) and from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). In 2019, after a semester at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, he started studying Fine Arts with Prof. Björn Dahlem (Sculpture, Object, Installation)—first as a guest student, and officially enrolled from 10/2021 – 03/2024.



Exhibitions



SOLO AND THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2024
“My tale is over, there runs a mouse, whoever catches it can make themselves a big, big fur cap from it.” (solo), Museum Grimmwelt/Gallery Festival, Kassel, Germany
“AF #1: False Idols” (Julia Dzwonkoski, Paul Knopf, Shyanna Merced), Agatha Falls, Niagara Falls, NY, USA

2023
“House of the Last Star Traveler” (solo), M BOOKS – space for architecture and related fields, Weimar, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
“HAVENS”, curated by Till Röttjer, NOVA Art Space, Weimar, Germany
“426 Trips Around the Sun”, Project Space @ Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY, USA

2023
“RISO RISO”, curated by Robert Rusch, Project Space @ Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY, USA

2022
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo: Observations of Emergent Practices”, curated by Young-Tack Oh, Kingfish Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA

2021
“Die 100 Pokale für Zella-Mehlis”, Galerie im Bürgerhaus, Zella-Mehlis, Germany
“sample from Ø mars”, curated by Rio Usui, Room 306, Education Building, Toride Campus of Intermedia Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts (東京藝術大学) Geidai (芸大), Tokyo, Japan

2020
“Box Edition 21”, time capsule and artist edition of 21 containing 16 works from 16 artists of the class of Prof. Björn Dahlem
“Basic Instincts”, Altes Funkhaus, Weimar, Germany

2018
“Belgrad – Flucht und Endstation. Eine Ausstellung zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft.”, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Weimar, Germany




Publications


Paul Knopf (2025): “House of the Last Star Traveler”, In: Class Favourite Magazine, Issue 03, Jan 2025. (forthcoming)

Paul Knopf (2024): “House of the Last Star Traveler”, In: PORT 2024. Weimar: Lucia Verlag.

Paul Knopf (2023): “The Last Star Traveler”, text by Laura Hörning. In: PORT 2023. Weimar: Lucia Verlag.

Paul Knopf (2021): “2109. Walnusstotem/ -elixier/ -talisman: Tautropfen des Universums (lapis philosophorum)” In: IRRE@bauhaus. Institut für regionale Realitätsexperimente. Prof. Jana Gunstheimer (Hg.): D100PVZM. Die Einhundert Pokale Von Zella Mehlis. Weimar: Lucia Verlag, 210/211.

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar/Klassik Stiftung Weimar (2021, July 21): “Künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit Ökologie – Ideenlabor Weimar 2021”[Artistic engagement with ecology – Ideenlabor Weimar 2021] [video, 05:09], Interview with Paul Knopf as part of the Weimar Ideas Lab for the New European Bauhaus. https://shorturl.at/ZiHOi

KubaParis (2020): “BASIC INSTINCTS”, KUBAPARIS, https://kubaparis.com/archive/klasse-dahlem-sculpture-object-installation-bauhaus-university-weimar

Paul Knopf (2019): “Solange die Welt standhält.”In: blank, No. 1: blank, 26/27.

Mara Günther, Paul Knopf (2019): “barracks revisited“ as part of “Belgrad – Flucht und Endstation. Eine Ausstellung zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft.“ In: Frank Eckardt, Miriam Neßler, Zita Seichter (Hg.): Weit weg und unbeachtet. Stadt und Flüchtende in Belgrad seit Schließung der Balkanroute. Weimar: Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag, 153/158/159.