FRANZISKA KNEIDL

Opening: Friday, August 25, 6pm – 8.30pm
August 25 – October 28, 2023

KAI MIDDENDORFF GALERIE
Niddastraße 84 (Halle)
60329 Frankfurt am Main

Franziska Kneidl is known for her painterly figurines that float freely in space. In her new, large-format works on canvas, the artist takes photographs of special places - and non-places - as her starting point. (In the work of this invitation, this is a Deutsche Bahn carriage with a completely shattered glass pane). Franziska Kneidl reacts to the photographed topographies by creating life-size figures on her canvases. The works have a painterly quality without being painting in the true sense of the word.

In principle, Franziska Kneidl works like a costume designer in film or theatre. She is able to characterise a figure for a scene at a particular location solely through the type and nature of the costume. (It should be noted that Kneidl made her very first artistic-aesthetic experiences at the theatre. As the daughter of a stage designer and a theatre photographer, she has been familiar with the phenomena of a character and its expression from an early age).

Despite the presence of the paper assemblages and the realism of the photographs, the fictional, the possible is inherent in Kneidl's images. Analogous to Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, for which, however, there were no films, Kneidl's images do not refer to (future) plays, scripts or films. They stand on their own, and we are invited to fill the figures in our heads with life, to imagine connections between the places and the clothes. In this active process, we always reflect - consciously or unconsciously - on the different media and draw on our very personal (film and theatre) memories - as well as, of course, on our very own dreams, dislikes, fears, wishes, desires ...
 
Franziska Kneidl, who grew up in Berlin (West), learned the profession of theatre painter at the Munich Kammerspiele before studying art at the Städelschule. Her works are represented in many collections (e.g. MMK Frankfurt, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt or Kunsthalle Bremerhaven). She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. Parallel to the exhibition, new works by Franziska Kneidl can be seen in her show In your Head or in the Cloud in the exhibition area of the Hessische Oberfinanzdirektion in Frankfurt (with Lilly Lulay; until 26 October 2023). 

Parallel to the exhibition, new works by Franziska Kneidl can also be seen in her show In your Head or in the Cloud in the exhibition area of the Hessian Oberfinanzdirektion in Frankfurt (with Lilly Lulay; until October 26, 2023).