Biography
Manuela Karin Knaut (born 1970) is a German visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, assemblage, and installation. Holding a Master’s degree in Installation Art and grounded in a professional background in art education, her work explores the intersections of memory, collecting, layering, and material transformation. Knaut’s abstract visual language is shaped by processes of accumulation and reduction—adding, covering, erasing, and reconfiguring. Her experimental approach embraces chance and unpredictability, allowing intuitive gestures and unexpected material interactions to guide the evolution of each piece.
Exhibiting a deeply international orientation, Knaut has developed a practice that extends far beyond geographical boundaries. Over the years, she has engaged in collaborations with artists, curators, and institutions around the world, contributing to exhibitions and projects across Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia and the Middle East. Her works are represented in private and corporate collections on all continents, reflecting the broad resonance of her artistic voice. Whether shown in contemporary art spaces, cultural institutions, or architecturally significant environments, her works foster dialogues between visual expression, spatial presence, and material sensibility.
Beyond her exhibition activities, Knaut frequently collaborates with international art consultancies, architectural firms, and interior design studios. These partnerships encompass large-scale art integrations and bespoke commissions, bridging fine art with design and architectural contexts. Her ability to translate her abstract language into diverse environments underscores the versatility and cross-disciplinary relevance of her practice. Currently, Knaut is particularly focused on intensifying the connection between painting and installation. She continues to expand her practice into spatial, sculptural, and conceptually layered fields, combining intuitive mark-making with structural exploration. Alongside her studio work, she maintains a strong global presence through teaching engagements, residencies, and ongoing exhibitions. Across all mediums, her work is driven by a continuous process of experimentation, transformation, and the search for new forms of visual and spatial expression.
Statement
Artist Statement – Manuela Karin Knaut
My work unfolds at the intersection of large-scale gestural painting, experimental photography, and spatial installation. What began as distinct disciplines has evolved into a fluid, process-based practice where materials, techniques, and formats merge, overlap, and inform one another. Layer by layer, visual spaces emerge where memory, materiality, and gesture enter into dialogue.
Travel – both physical and conceptual – is an integral part of my practice. Working in different cultural contexts challenges my perspective, expands my awareness, and allows me to grow through artistic exchange. These movements directly influence my work: in the materials I choose, the openness of my process, and my willingness to respond to chance, trace, and tension.
At the core lies an ongoing engagement with memory and archive – themes that shaped not only my artistic vision but also my academic research during my Master’s degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. My works become visual containers of time and transformation, reflecting what disappears, what remains, and what can be reactivated. Art, to me, is a space of connection – between inner and outer worlds, across time, people, and places. I want to stay open, keep learning, collaborate, shift perspectives – and keep looking again, with fresh eyes.
ARTIST STATEMENT (DEUTSCH)
Meine Arbeit bewegt sich zwischen großformatiger, gestischer Malerei, experimenteller Fotografie und raumgreifender Installation. Was ursprünglich als getrennte Disziplinen begann, hat sich zu einer offenen, prozesshaften Praxis entwickelt, in der sich unterschiedliche Medien überlagern, verbinden und gegenseitig durchdringen. Schicht für Schicht entstehen visuelle Räume, in denen Erinnerung, Materialität und Geste miteinander in Dialog treten.
Das Reisen – sowohl geografisch als auch gedanklich – ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil meines künstlerischen Prozesses. In neuen kulturellen Kontexten zu arbeiten, bedeutet für mich, Perspektiven zu verschieben, Wahrnehmung zu erweitern und durch künstlerischen Austausch zu wachsen. Diese Bewegungen fließen direkt in meine Arbeit ein: in die Wahl der Materialien, in die Offenheit des Prozesses und in die Bereitschaft, auf Zufall, Spur und Spannung zu reagieren. Im Zentrum steht eine kontinuierliche Auseinandersetzung mit Erinnerung und Archiv – Themen, die nicht nur meine künstlerische Haltung prägen, sondern auch im Mittelpunkt meines Masterstudiums an der University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg standen. Meine Werke werden zu visuellen Speichern von Zeit und Transformation. Sie reflektieren, was verschwindet, was bleibt – und was sich neu aktivieren lässt.
Kunst ist für mich ein Ort der Verbindung – zwischen Innen und Außen, zwischen Menschen, Zeiten und Räumen. Ich möchte offen bleiben, lernen, kollaborieren, Perspektiven verschieben – und immer wieder neu hinschauen.