Friedrich Kunath

Photo by Manfredi Gioacchinni

Profile

Friedrich Kunath (born 1974 in Chemnitz, East Germany) is a visual artist who lives in Los Angeles.  Kunath works in a wide range of media, integrating a highly descriptive visual language into his paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and videos. By exercising an acute understanding of life’s highs and lows, Kunath creates emotive works that tap into a collective consciousness - exploring the ways in which we live, love and remember. 

He has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven (2014), Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry (2014), Oxford Museum of Modern Art (2013), Schinkel Pavillon (2011), Sprengel Museum (2012), the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010), Kunstverein Hannover (2009), Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2009), Aspen Art Museum (2008).

Career
2011 Resident Professor, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
2006 Foerderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen fuer junge Kuenstlerinnen und Kuenstler
2005 Arbeitsstipendium der Jürgen Ponto-Stiftlung, Frankurt am Main
2001 Peter Mertes Stipendium, Kunstverein Bonn, Bonn, Germany
1974 Born in Chemnitz, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Where is the Madness that You Promised Me, Tim van Laere Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2017 Frutti di Mare, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Juckreiz, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany
The World Is A Beautiful Place (We’re Not Here For Long), Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gil Bronner Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany
My Loneliness Shines, VNH Gallery, Paris, France
2015 Sentimental Air, BQ, Berlin, Germany
2014 Earth to Fuckface, White Cube, Hong Kong
The Temptation To Exist (May Contain Nuts), Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
If I Could Only Remember Your Name, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany
A Plan to Follow Summer Around the World, Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry – le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
The Forest Smelled Like Bananas, Capri, Düsseldorf, Germany
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, NY
Grand Optimist, Easter Star Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 White Cube, Mason's Yard, London, UK
Raymond Moody's Blues, Oxford Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; traveling to Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2012 Your Life is Not for You, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
Lacan's Haircut, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Things We Did When We Were Dead, BQ Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2011 Lonely are the Free, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany
The Most Beautiful World in the World, White Cube, London, United Kingdom
2010 I used to be darker but then I got lighter and then I got dark again, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo
Hammer Projects: Friedrich Kunath, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Tropical Depression, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2009 BQ, Berlin, Germany
Kunstalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany
Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany
2008 Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
Emoh, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Twilight, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
Kunst aus NRW in der ehemaligen Reichsabtei Aachen-Kornelimunster BQ, Cologne, Germany
2006 I have always been here before, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2005 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2004 We were the one thing in the galaxy God didn't have his eyes on, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Our endless numbered days, BQ, Cologne, Germany
2003 We are not as far west as we suppose we are, The Bakery/ Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Statements, Art I34I Basel, Basel, Switzerland (under the auspice of BQ gallery)
2002 Welcome Home Steve Curry, BQ, Cologne, Germany
2001 Bonner Kunstverein, Peter Mertes Stipendium (with Thea Djordjadze), Bonn, Germany
Friedrich Kunath, Videos, CHAUSSE 37, Berlin, Germany
2000 One day it will all make sense, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Scotland (weekend-show with Dirk Bell)
1998 Why are my friends such finks, BQ, Cologne, Germany (with Dirk Bell)
Group Exhibitions
2018 This is a Pipe: Realism and the Found Object in Contemporary Art, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL
Cliché, organized with Bill Powers, Almine Rech Gallery, New York, NY
LA Friends, Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY
2017 Horror Vacui, or The Annihilation of Space, curated by Shane Campbell, Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, Japan
Form and Volume, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2016 Mount Analogue, Performance Ski, Aspen, CO
Takashi Murakami’s Superflat Collection: From Shōhaku and Rosanjin to Anselm Kiefer, Yokohama Art Museum, Yokohama, Japan
Tomorrow is a long time, Tim van Laere Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Group show, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
Juxtapoz x Superflat, Pivot Art + Culture, Seattle, WA; traveled to Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
Self-Fiction: David Altmejd & Friedrich Kunath, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Giles, Gagosian Gallery, Athens
Human Condition, curated by John Wolf, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
2015 Takashi Murakami’s Superflat Collection: From Shōhaku and Rosanjin to Anselm Kiefer, Yokohama Art Museum, Yokohama, Japan
If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?, Hunter East Harlem Gallery, City University of New York, New York
The Avant-Garde Won't Give Up: Cobra and Its Legacy, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Love or the Lack of It, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain
My wife does the dishes, I do the revolution, Kimmerich, Berlin, Germany
Second Chances, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
2014 Friendly Takeover: Artists Show Their Collection, MARTa Herford, Herford, Germany
FIRE!, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY
Lone Tree, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY
2013 À triple tour: oeuvres de la collection Pinault, Centre des Monuments Nationaux, La Conciergerie, Paris, France
The Hope of Wrecks, Museum of St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
Transforming the Known: Works from the Bert Kreuk Collection, Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Netherlands
More Young Americans, L’Enclos des Bernardins, Hôtel de Miramion, Paris
Set Pieces, Cardi Black Box, Milan, Italy
2012 Wonderful – Humboldt, Krokodil & Polke, Die Olbricht Collection, Me Collectors Room Berlin
Funny, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
The Residue of Memory, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
Stiftung Schloss Dyck, Juechen, Germany
Other Voices, Other Rooms, Wentrup Avlskarl Projects, Copenhagen, Denmark
Schach Matt (Checkmate), Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany
Orchestra Change, Stiftung Schloss Dyck, Juechen, Germany
Death Can Dance, Townhouse, Zurich, Switzerland
You Should’ve Heard Just What I Seen, Riverview School, East Sandwich, MA
2011 Midnight Party, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Herzliya Biennial, Herzliya, Israel
Gesamtkunstwerk, Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Collection Exhibition, Berezdivin Collection, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Second Strike, 3rd Herzliya Biennial for Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel
Marklin World, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Deserteure, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Il Mondo Vi Appartiene – The World Belongs to You, Palazzo Grassi, Venice
dwellings, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
Pamphile, Deichtorhallen Museum, Hamburg, Germany
Human Nature, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Captain Pamphile- nach einem Roman von Alexandre DumasStädtische Galerie Waldkraiburg, Waldkraiburg, Germany
Saw It, Loved ItMuseum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action, White Cube, London, United Kingdom
Country Music, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Larger than Life - Stranger than Fiction,Triennale Kleinplastik, Fellbach, Germany
Kurt, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Also on View, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place, Zabludowicz Collection, Projectspace 176, London, United Kingdom
2009 15th Anniversary Inaugural Exhibition, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Play, Galeria Monica de Cardenas, Milan, Italy
Grin & Bear It: Cruel humor in art and life, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
2008
-2009
The Eternal Flame, Kunsthaus Baselland, (curated by Burkhard Meltzer and Sabine Schaschl)
Life on Mars: the 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Journeys to Nowhere: Selections from the Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
The Eternal Flame, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
Vertrautes Terrain. Aktuelle Kunst in/über Deutscheland, ZKM Museum for Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe
Gravity in Art , Telic Arts Exchange, Los Angeles, California (curated by Rene Daalder in association with Theo Tegelaers)
Informed by Function, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York, (co-curated by Claudia Calirman and Susan Hoeltzel)
The Leisure Suite, The LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
2007 Blind Date, Magazzino d’arte moderna, Rome, Italy
Dream and Trauma-Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria, curated by Edelbert Köb, Gerald Matt and Angela Stief) [cat.]
Learn to read, Tate Modern, London
Seb Koberstädt / Friedrich Kunath: Förderpreisträger 2006, Kunst aus Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany
Verwendungsnachweis, Stipendiaten der Jurgen Ponto-Stiftung 2003-2006, MMK Frankfurt am Main
2006 Bonanza, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY (curated by Karola Grasslin)
Nothing but pleasure, BAWAG Foundation, Wein
Spooky, Het Gebouw, Utrecht
Esquidor en el fondo de un pozo, Fundaccion/ Coleccion Jumex, Mexico City
2005 Avalon Art Association, Revelin Castle, Dubrovnik, Kroatia
Exile. New York is a good Hotel, Broadway 1602, New York, NY
Fabriques du Sublime, La Galerie, Centre d'art contemporain, Ville de Noisy-le-Sec, France
The Gravity in Art, De Appel, Amsterdam
Words: The Formal Presence of Text In Modern and Contemporary Works On Paper, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Rings of Saturn, Rockwell, London, United Kingdom
No one else can make me feel the colors that you bring, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Strawberry Fields, La Coleccion Jumex and CANAIA, Mexico City, Mexico (curated by Patricia Martin) (cat.)
2003 Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2002 Superschloss, Stadtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
On the other hand you have different fingers, Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin, Germany
Friedrich Kunath: When which the roofridge time when you realized the NEXT time would the read time, mise EN scène: Curieux VI-VIII, Bonner Kunstverein & Videonale, Bonn, Germany
2001 Zero Gravity, Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dsseldorf, Germany
1995-2001, BQ, Cologne, Germany
2000 Parking Meters, Cologne, Germany
Make my paper sound, Studiogalerie Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
1998 Junge Kunst im Zweiten, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Dirty Windows, Berlin, Germany
1995 VOXXX-Galerie, Chemnitz, Germany
Green Room, San Diego, CA
1994 The easiest thing to grow in a garden is tired, Galerie Peters-Barenbrock, Braunschweig, Germany
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