Paul Knopf
With a background in architecture, Paul Knopf explores how form and materiality are connected to both dreams and memory, as well as identity. Just like ruins served as quarries, his installations and sculptures are informed by building elements and domestic objects which serve to question the integrity of the home and its narrative as a self-made, Arcadian refuge. Although working with materials and artifacts relating to the domestic, their surfaces are often the product of digital manufacturing processes situating the sculptures in the ambiguity between physical and digital. The resulting instability of belonging is central to his work. Yet, he combines temporary fasteners and DIY-joining techniques, and visibly applies them in a repairing and prosthetic manner to construct a fragile reality.
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
2024
Solo exhibition at Grimmwelt (Museum about the Brothers Grimm and their collected Fairytales) as part of the Gallery Festival Kassel, 14.06. - 21.06., Weinbergstr. 21, Kassel, Germany
2024
Group exhibition “Havens”, 06.04. - 13.04., Berkaer Straße 11, Weimar, Germany
2024
Group exhibition “426 Trips Around the Sun”, 22.03. - 19.04.2024, BICA School Project Space & Lab, Buffalo (NY), USA
2024
Group exhibition “False Idols”, 23.02. - 05.04.2024, Agatha Falls, Niagara Falls (NY), USA
2023
Solo exhibition “House of the Last Star Traveler”, 08.11. - 11.11.2023, M BOOKS – space for architecture and related fields, Weimar, Germany
2023
Group exhibition “RISO RISO”, 24.03. - 01.04.2023, BICA School Project Space & Lab, Buffalo (NY), USA
2021
Group exhibition “Die 100 Pokale für Zella-Mehlis”, 09. - 19.09.2021, IRRE@Bauhaus in the Galerie im Bürgerhaus, Zella-Mehlis, Germany
Instagram: @irre_bauhaus
2021
Group exhibition “sample from Ø mars”, 20./21.11.2021, 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
2021
Group exhibition “Ø mars” in cooperation with Tokyo University of the Arts (東京藝術大学) Geidai (芸大) since 15.07.2021 online on Instagram
Instagram: @emptyset_mars
2020
“Box Edition 21” serves as a time capsule of the momentary composition of the class of Prof. Björn Dahlem with an edition of 21 boxes containing 16 works from 16 artists of the class
2020
Group exhibition “Basic Instincts”, 7./8.11.2020, Altes Funkhaus, Weimar, Germany
featured in KubaParis – Zeitschrift für junge Kunst
2018
Group exhibition “Belgrad – Flucht und Endstation. Eine Ausstellung zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft.”, 12.-15.07.2018, Marienstraße 9, Weimar, Germany
Publications
Paul Knopf (2024): “House of the Last Star Traveler”, text by Said Derkaoui. 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.
Video interview about my works as part of the Ideenlabor 2021 in the context of the New European Bauhaus: https://vimeo.com/577581110
Paul Knopf (2019): “Solange die Welt standhält.” In: blank, Ausgabe 1: blank, 26/27.
