Knopp Ferro - Levitating Composition

August 26th - October 28th, 2023

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Houston, Texas - Gallery Sonja Roesch is pleased to present the second solo-show for Knopp Ferro from Munich, Germany. 

 

Knopp Ferro (*1953) is renown on the international stage for his kinetic sculptures. These elaborate structures float above the viewer as an expansive network of metal rods, all very slender and of varying lengths. The linear nature of the work is invariably delicate, continuously oscillating and causing the very nature shift based on its own internal rotations and the perception of the viewer. They combine lightness with extraordinary stability. 

 

In the 1970’s, Austrian artist Knopp Ferro studied metal sculpture and performance in Cologne. Ferro, whose artist name already hints at one of his preferred materials, paved his way into the art world with his performance group Jet Ferro. Through the interventions of the art group Jet Ferro, which were tied to Fluxus, Ferro became visible at Art Basel as well as at Documenta 6. In this context the artist understands art-making as musician, actor, author, as creator of sculptural ‘performance-requisites’. Fluxus, happening, dance, punk, circus, combined in performance art, give form to Ferro’s early work. 

 

In 1980 Ferro moves to Basel and then Zurich to found the experimental theater Bumper to Bumper. He toured Europe for over ten years. In the studio, resembling an idea laboratory, concepts for the plays as well as their realization were developed. 

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From 1990 he concentrated more on sculptures and installations starting his solo career. After a 3-year stay in New York, Ferro returned to Cologne. 

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Since 2006 the artist lives and works in Munich.