Matthias Neumann
Educated as architect my work encompasses a wide range of media, with a particular focus on installations in the public sphere. A recurring interest is how space, material assembly and related processes allow for the experience of the spatial condition of the work in relation to its place, and to question notions of material, social and spatial ecology. Also, I like to have fun.
I am a multi-disciplinary artist and architect based between Germany, Greece and the USA. Over the past decade I have occupied myself primarily with a series of bodies of work that each operate within their own conceptual plain, but that share an engagement with the built environment and the specificity of site. Notably, I have been engaged with three ongoing series of public interventions under the title “Basics”, “Xabana” and "Deracinations" for the past decade with over 70 iterations in public spaces across the United States and in Europe. While each series is distinct and operates within its own formal language the work series share a common concern with a formal abstraction that is developed through an additive assembly of identical elements that are manipulated into distinct expression.
My work has been presented including at venues such as Manifesta 8, Galeria HIT, National Museum of Contemporary Art Romania, SITE:Lab, the Queens Museum, Montalvo Art Center, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum, among others, in addition to a significant number of public art installations. My architectural work has been recognized through competitions, including the finalist design for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York, my winning competition entry for the Africa Centre near Cape Town, South Africa, and through publications and exhibitions of proposed and built work.
