Franz Ackermann

*1963 in Neumarkt Sankt-Veit, Germany
lives in Karlsruhe and Berlin

Franz Ackermann studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg. In 1991 he received a DAAD scholarship for a residency in Hong Kong. Since then Ackermann has been creating socalled “Mental Maps”, sketches of immediate experiences and city maps, while travelling and still on location. In his studio, he produces large-format pictures based on these sketches, which often lead to site-specific installations. In 2001 the Karlsruhe Art Academy appointed him professor of painting. Since the 1990s, Ackermann’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, including Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, as well as Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel.

“Painting is one part (!) of my artistic action. It begins where it is necessary. The ‘discourse‘ too easily overlooks and underestimates elementary concepts such as form, light, colour. I face this verbalization of seeing with the greatest scepticism. In this age, I consider working ‘quasi‘ out of nowhere to be more topical than ever”. (Franz Ackermann, kunstschau.netsamurai.de)