Harald Kröner
Harald Kröner’s work focuses on perception and the transition between the visible and the invisible, where colour influences and colours design, where a line is transformed into rhythm or music, where the complex and surprising combination of elements creates harmony. Kröner speaks of drawing and collage as a constantly growing store of ideas, a kind of battery, and so the works of recent years, which bear consecutive K numbers as titles, now attempt to link the individual blocks of work created to date with cross-references and to network them into polyphonic fields of narratives. In these drawings, the artist uses a wide variety of material combinations. Early drawings from the 1990s are virtually melted into some of the lacquer works. Smaller sheets are collaged into dirt marks left behind from painting on another piece of paper. They thus become staggered frames. He incorporates entire pages from art magazines, from which he has removed the illustrations, into the collages. He describes this as a “muted discourse echo”, which he places in a new context through his drawings. Kröner’s discoveries, vague and intermediate, create a field of tension between hints that stubbornly elude discourse. By refusing to say anything definitive and affirming the inevitable intimacy, Kröner’s work is both topical and political.
Johannes Nagel
Johannes Nagel’s artworks focus primarily on the themes of improvisation, impermanence and transformation. He works mainly with porcelain, a material known for its delicate yet resilient properties. Although most of his creations take the form of vessels, they question the ambiguous relationship between form and function. His works encourage the viewer to rethink the boundaries of both aspects.
Johannes Nagel’s approach is not to create static, flawless objects. Instead, his works exist as an ongoing dialogue between artist, material and process – they are constantly evolving and often surprising. His vessels are reminiscent of both construction and destruction, blurring the boundaries between completeness and incompleteness. Sometimes they appear as fragmented or alienated forms, reinforcing the sense of transience and constant transformation in his creative practice. A distinctive feature of many of Johannes Nagel’s works is his innovative sand casting technique, in which he buries himself in sand to create negative spaces for porcelain casting. This experimental process emphasises the tactile, artisanal character of his work, with each sculptural vessel bearing the direct imprint of his artistic process.
Laurin Schaub
Laurin Schaub creates functional porcelain objects with a deconstructivist perspective on “Materia Prima” and “Alchemy”. He is inspired by the idea that nothing exists without being made up of small units and at the same time being integrated into a larger whole. His poetic play with forms, structures and colours opens up an abstract perspective on the aspect of the simultaneity of connectedness and separateness.
“I don’t follow a particular style, but constantly ask myself what ceramics can be today. I am constantly searching for new techniques and often draw inspiration from areas outside ceramics. On the one hand, I use digital tools and new technologies to develop new techniques and formal languages, while on the other hand, I am committed to classic ceramics and pure craftsmanship. This leads to projects and objects with a wide range of functions and complexity.” Laurin Schaub
Biography
Harald Kröner
- Born 1962
- 1984–1990 Studium Kunstakademie Stuttgart bei Rudolf Schoofs
- 1994 Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg
- 2002/03 Atelierstipendium Stiftung Bartels Fondation, Basel
- 2005/06 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
- 2006/07 Preisträger Wettbewerb Werk 07, Heide
Johannes Nagel
- Born 1979 in Jena
- 2001 Töpferausbildung bei Kinya Ishikawa in Val-David, PQ Kanada
- 2002–2008 Studium im Fachbereich Plastik/ Keramik bei Prof. Antje Scharfe, Karl Fulle und Martin Neubert an der HKD Burg Giebichenstein in Halle
- 2005–2006 Arbeitsaufenthalt im Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan
- 2007 Studienaufenthalt an der Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, USA
- Seit 2008 Werkstatt/Atelier in Halle
- 2008 Diplom der Bildenden Kunst/Keramik an der HKD Burg Giebichenstein in Halle
- 2009 Graduiertenstipendium der HKD Burg Giebichenstein in Halle
- 2009 Scotish Arts Council Crafts Residency in Cove Park, Schottland
Laurin Schaub
- Laurin Schaub (1984), who graduated from “HEAD” in Geneva with a degree in “Réalisation Céramique et Polymère”, is one of Switzerland’s most experimental ceramic designers. The Bernese artist combines traditional pottery craftsmanship with innovative technologies. Schaub has already won two Swiss Design Awards for his contemporary approach to pottery.
- Postgraduate studies DAS, Ceramics and Polymer Design, HEAD
- Apprenticeship as a ceramist, Ceramics Department, Bern
- Apprenticeship as a potter, Wehrle Pottery, Willisau
