Kölnischer Kunstverein

In his work Bernd Krauß uses techniques ranging from painting, drawing and sculpture to video, photography, printing, performance and theatre. In addition he pursues various long-term projects such as the production of a magazine not dissimilar to printed advertisement circulars. The magazine with the tabloidesque title “Der Riecher” is reproduced using copy shops and the internet. Krauß continuously absorbs the everyday around him and uses this material for his objects, performances and pictures as well as for his own improvised TV channel (“Channel Middle Franconia”).

His use of formats not specific to art practice and his preference for everyday forms of action is characteristic of his work as much as the distance he consciously keeps to the type of expert artists, who, by repetition attain mastery in their specific technique and spread it throughout the art system. By contrast Krauß adopts the attitude of a Hobbyist-As-Professional, who is not constrained by the usual operating principles – for example when he works as a volunteer at a zoo in the north of Sweden or delves into betting on harness races.

In his polyglot and multi-formatted installations casually set gestures and an unconventional formalism condense into unpredictable spaces of projection.

Bernd Krauß lives and works in Stockholm. In 2011 and 2012 he spent long periods of time in Cologne.