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STUDIO KLAUS HU 
Wildenbruch 77
12045 Berlin / Germany
tel +49.30.68081524
klaushu (at) yahoo.de




represented by VG BILD-KUNST BONN / Germany.
Steuernummer 16/355/62802 nach § 19 Abs 1 UStG
 
 
 
price list of available works as .pdf on request by email.

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KLAUS HU, living and working in Berlin, born 1963 in Heidelberg / Germany, works mainly in PAINTING, drawing and photographic research, with extended practice on site specific and curatorial concepts.

Klaus Hu’s painting practice combines narrative and poetic elements based on photographic archives and research to merge abstraction and figuration.

Whether engaging with the landscapes and land use of the American Southwest, reflecting on the canon of 1960s abstraction, focusing on a single color, or during the pandemic, interweaving ecological and prehistoric perspectives on human achievements and failures, his work consistently returns to landscape as a site of inquiry. Through layered processes, the paintings confront mass media and constructed realities, blurring fact and fiction while activating an emotional narrative realm.

Color does blend both precision and improvisation: carefully refined yet infused with the spontaneity of jazz. The works evoke novel-like narratives shaped by local and global unease and informed by deep-time investigations, akin to geological strata.

History and lived experience inspire these carefully composed paintings, which move both within and beyond established narrative conventions. His interest in the narrative, ecological, prehistoric, ephemeral, as well as the musical and poetic calls for exhibition formats that encourage dialogue through juxtapositions.

In 2015 he showed UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES, a reflection on the Western American landscape and its nuclear heritage at SOMOS, BERLIN as solo exhibition, and in 2022 at VILLA HEIKE BERLIN he presented HI ALTITUDE, a solo exhibition of mostly large scale formats on canvas featuring ambiguous and distant landscapes as fragmented abstractions and narratives, involving quotes of ancient prehistoric features and of ecological concern. 

His recent series LA FOLÍA / FOLÍAS / LA FOLIE / THE FOLLY (2024–26) responds to one of the oldest European musical themes, originating in Portugal and Spain. By implementing color, figurative and abstract notions on this subject, the new painting series echoes this musical theme with selected contemporary follies.  I: space exploration (s) : the starship trooper II: false idols / the male hero / Blinky / Clint  III: online seductions / the body IV: summer in the city as prologue and epilogue

His education was in anthropology, Germanic and Romance studies / literature at University of Heidelberg 1982 / 83 and at University of the Arts Berlin (UdK) from 1985 / 1991, and 1998 / 99 in stage design, photography and video at Achim Freyer and Katharina Sieverding. In 1992 he received the Berlin Senate fellowship / working grant for 1 year and more recently a studio grant / residency of Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico, USA in 2013. 

 
 
 
 
CURRENTLY IN THE STUDIO

FOLíAS / 2024 / 26 in progress
studio based / painting / charcoals / graphite
La Folía (Spanish), or Follies (English), also known as folies d'Espagne (French), La Follia (Italian), and Folia (Portuguese), is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, of a composition, on record. The theme exists in two versions, referred to as early and late folias, the earlier being faster.

studio based / painting
an ephemeral reflection on clouds.
 

studio based / painting

a memory of the future and a precognition of the prehistoric.

solo exhibition at Villa Heike Berlin, June 2022.

 


 
 
 
RECENTLY IN THE STUDIO
 
 
 
LAYERS OF TIME redux 2017 / 18
curatorial / research / compilation for a transatlantic curatorial project on the layers of history and how archives interconnect with the studio based process. various artists from the US and Europe.
 

painting series, which refines one color as the main subject for narrative and abstract responses on daily / subjective and on geopolitical issues. 
 

painting series, that challenges the historical and the digital archive as source of citation as a different kind of perception and of discourse.


painting - photography
On landscape, land-use of the South West of the US - partly made possible via residency at Santa Fe Art Institute, NM, USA, 2013 - final outcome has been presented at SOMOS, Berlin, 2015 Germany as solo exhibition / painting / photography / with scientific talks on uranium mining with scientist and with video / photographic presentations of the research, while at Santa Fe Art Institute. 


New Mexico, USA, 2013





most recent / upcoming / selection of  EXHIBITIONS and PARTICIPATIONS

 
 
 
2024 OPEN STUDIO at CLOUD 9 preview of new work series
 
2020 MIT EIGENEM BLICK alumni 76 / 99 exhibition / group at
         ACHIM FREYER FOUNDATION Berlin / Germany.

2019  EARTH, FAIL BIGGER! invited for site specific competition / 
         Stuttgart / Karlsruhe, Germany.

2018 / 19  ANAMORPHOSES site specific concept. 
          participation for Leonardo high school. Berlin.

2018  invited for short time research residency at French Villa Medici / Rome 

2015  UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES, solo exhibition at SOMOS, Berlin, Germany.

2013  Residency at SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

2011  Exhibition at GERMAN PARLIAMENT, 
          participation in site-specific competition. Germany.

2009  Participation in open call MAXXI, Rome, site-specific. Italy.

2009  Participation in open call, SHARJAH BIENNALE, site-specific. UAE.

2008  Invited for ISEA SINGAPORE. Singapore. 
         Presented keynote / paper  SPACE AND NARRATIVE IDENTITY. 
         Funded by IFA, Stuttgart.




 available as hardcover / print on demand
 
1: HI ALTITUDE 2019 21 
2: PAINTING KLAUS HU 2006 / 19 
3: SPIRAL JETTY ACOMA MADRID BANDELIER 2013 / 14
4: NEW MEXICAN TRAVELS 2013
5: MARS_SPIRIT 2009 / 12
6: NY 92 / 12




STUDIES

2011 curatorial training at UdK Berlin, University of the Arts, Berlin

1998 / 99 guest study in Visual Culture Studies
UdK, University of the Arts, Berlin at Katharina Sieverding

1985 / 91 studies in stage design, photography, video
UdK, University of the Arts, Berlin at Achim Freyer and Marcel Odenbach

1982 / 83 studies in Anthropology, Germanic- and Romance literature 
University Heidelberg



FELLOWSHIPS / PRIZES / RESIDENCIES

2020 / 21 invited residency for 18TH STREET LA, Los Angeles, USA 
                ( canceled due to Covid 19 travel restrictions )

2018 invited research residency Villa Medici / Rome / FRANCE / ITALY

2013 residency SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE, NEW MEXICO, USA  /  studio grant 

1992 Berlin Senate 1 year fellowship working grant, Berlin, GERMANY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PORTFOLIO SELECTION 2013 - 2022  / 3 WORK SERIES BY KLAUS HU
free download for reviews
via google.drive as .pdf
or click on square for full page view


all works and photos © KLAUS HU & VG BILD-KUNST BONN
 
 
except courtesy

on STRIPES 2015 / 16
Edward S Curtis 1868-1952 Frame of peyote sweat-lodge 1 photogravure : brown ink ; 14 x 19 cm [image size], 18 x 22 cm [plate size]Original photogravure produced in Cambridge, MA, by Suffolk Engraving Co. 1927  
Source: The North American Indian (1907-1930) v.19 
Cambridge, Mass. :The University Press], 1930), Facing page 206  
courtesy Northwestern University Digital Library Collections
 
and on UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES 2013 / 15
photos on uranium disposal cells courtesy CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION
additional text  by / courtesy JAMES REICH writer / Santa Fe, NM / USA
and historical photos courtesy TIMOTHY H. O`SULLIVAN /  1868 - 1873
"Inventory of the T.H. O´Sullivan Photographs, 1868 - 1873 
courtesy Rare Book, Manuscript and special Collections Library, 
Duke University, Durham, NC, USA