JAKOB

GREBERT

My art is dealing with ideas of nature, civilization and home. I investigate where the divisions between those places lie and if they can be upheld. Each of those different spheres is linked to specific behaviors and longings. They all house their own dangers and have their own dark sides too. It seems nowadays crisis has befallen all of them. Nature means catastrophe, civilization means competition and home means loneliness. As an artist I look at how these spheres inhabit one another and how we can rethink them.

A lot of my artworks stem from everyday life and my own experiences and observations. But I do not see them as autobiographical. Every time a work is made or a word is spoken it is its own thing. Any utterance of experience becomes partly fictionalized when taking a form. The next fictionalization takes place when the viewer comes into the process. Instead of controlling what I want them to understand, I work with fragmented narrations that take into consideration the viewers agency in the artwork.

Identity questions are part of my works, as I want to critique certain notions of individuality. Even though every human is unique, this uniqueness can only form through interactions with other people and the world. What we do and who we are depends largely on circumstance. It makes not much sense to me, to use my practice to find out my individual way of making art, as there is no such thing as originality. I think art can be an attempt to assume a spherical perspective and look for those moments where experiences overlap.

Objects and spaces are often thought of as animated in my works. I try to make them perform actions or tell stories. Humans have the ability to see personality traits in objects, for instance a cupboard can exude seriousness, or a tree tiredness. On the other side, what a person is and does is also influenced largely by the spaces they inhabit and the objects they deal with. The correlations between the spiritual and the physical realm are a subject that I am preoccupied with throughout my artistic practice.

I choose from project to project what medium I want to use and what subject I want to investigate. Most frequently I work with sculpture, installation or drawing. My works are often narrative and deal with everyday culture and everyday objects. I assume in them a variety of possible human and non-human perspectives. I see identity not as fixed but as fluctuating, which led me to the choice not to determine what my practice is. I try to keep my works approachable and I like to use humor. Besides my solo practice I am also a member of the artist collective “Gruppe Park” (formerly called Studio 18) that works with performances, film, multimedia installations and participatory exhibition forms.

JAKOB GREBERT

Jakob Grebert is a visual artist and a member of the artist collective Gruppe Park (formerly called Studio 18). In 2017 he received an MA in Fine Arts from the Muthesius University Kiel, Germany. From 2012 until 2016 he was a fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. In 2017 he participated in “Project Network”, the Emerging Artist Recidency Programme of Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark. In 2018 he was awarded a working grant from the Schleswig-Holstein Culture Foundation. Currently he lives and works in Lisbon, where he is also taking part in the Maumaus Independent Study Programme. For the academic year 2019/20 he will receive a one-year scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Lately he has was nominated for the „Gottfried Brockmann Prize 2017“ of the Kiel City Gallery and the „Muthesius Prize 2018“ at Kunsthalle Kiel, where he was awarded the Muthesius Advancement Prize. He has exhibited in group-shows at Galerie Handwerk Munich, Guldagergaard Skælskør, Denmark, White Concepts / r-k Galerie Berlin, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz Berlin and Künstlerhaus im Anscharpark Kiel. Studio 18 has performed in Prima Kunst Kiel, Museum Five Continents Munich, at the Open Out Festival in Tromsø, Norway and at Asia Network Beyond Design in Tokyo.