FLORIAN MEISENBERG

Florian Meisenberg was born 1980 in Berlin. After graduating his studies at Peter Doig’s masterclass at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2010 he moved to New York, where he now lives and works.

Florian Meisenberg's practice experiments with the possibilities of the depicted image. Much of his work reflects self-consciously upon both the process of painting and the specific boundaries of the medium. His investigations have led him to paint both figuratively as well as abstractly, playing with issues of scale that create complex installations (or environments), and explore the permutations of different materials (whether those used for support or types of paint or digital media), all in the service of expanding the potential of non-verbal communication. These are works that in their constant awareness of the constructed nature of visual experience nevertheless present to viewers images containing the expressive power of an unmediated here and now.

2016 Florian Meisenberg was part of the comprehensive group exhibition ICH at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. A huge flatscreen monitor stands in the center of Meisenberg’s installation Out of Office (2016). It is supported by two spindly legs that hardly seem capable of holding its weight. Hung on the wall behind the monitor, which is covered with photo wallpaper featuring a nature motif, are six canvases arranged in a cross-shaped pattern oriented towards left, as in an unfolded skybox. Skyboxes are employed in computer and video games to create the illusion of a three-dimensional space by projecting background motifs such as skies, mountains, or buildings onto the inside faces of a closed tube. The background motifs on Meisenberg’s canvases – clouds, a sun, classical architectural elements, a man leaning out of a window – are rough sketches projections of the artist’s thoughts and ideas.

In Out of Office he lends additional emphasis to this direct translation of the artistic process by having everything that happens on his smartphone transmitted live into the exhibition space via the monitor in the foreground. Thus visitors can read every private message the artist reads, every photo he takes, every one of his calendar entries, and every Google research. In contrast, the six canvases in the background have the look of nostalgic relics of a bygone era.

In 2019 Meisenberg created an original lithograph skybox. It's an edition of 38 + 4 artist proofs.

Florian Meisenberg and Peter Rostovsky did an interactive digital project together which was launched on the website of BOMB Magazine. While Florian Meisenberg was on a road rip through the US in summer 2018 he had a deep conversation with Rostovsky through their smartphones. To see the project Florian Meisenberg by Peter Rostovsky click the following link.

Florian Meisenberg has had his work featured in numerous international museums and galleries, including Kunstmuseum Bonn; Museum Wiesbaden; Kunstsammlung Chemnitz; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Künstlerhaus Bremen; Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Kunstpalais Erlangen; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Kasseler Kunstverein; Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen; Kunstwerke Berlin (all in Germany); Zabludowicz Collection, London, Great Britain; Museum Kunsten in Aalborg, Denmark; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Norway; ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Queens Museum of Art und Simone Subal Gallery in New York, NYC; Kate MacGarry Gallery, London, Great Britain; Francois Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles, CA and Mendes Wood Gallery in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Upcoming solo exhibitions in summer and autumn 2020 include a solo exhibition at Kunstparterre in Munich and the opening of a Kunst am Bau project at Holbaek Art in Denmark, where Meisenberg will paint the complete facade of the city's library.

Works by Florian Meisenberg are in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf; Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen; Julia Stoschek Collection Düsseldorf; Boros Collection, Berlin; Sammlung Osram, Munich (all Germany); Zabludowicz Collection, London, Great Britain; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Belgium; The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH and numerous international private collections.

Notable awards include Kunstpreis Junger Westen; Arbeitsstipendium of Stiftung Kunstfond Bonn; DAAD scholarship for New York; the NRW Förderpreis and the Audi Art Award.