Exhibition: 18 March – 14 May
Maddox Arts is pleased to present another major solo exhibition of new works by Knopp Ferro.
Knopp Ferro’s multiple shows in Brazil in recent years have inspired his use of primary colors and new materials whilst exploring new techniques.
Ferro’s delicate works are a stark contrast to his beginning as a performance artist, an actor and circus performer throughout the seventies and eighties with the artist collective Jet Ferro and performance theatre Bumper to Bumper performing for instance in Art 8 Basel in 1977.
Those theatrical concerns are now translated into gravity defying structures, which aim to activate the space that surrounds them by producing elusive waves of motion. The artist manipulates the minimal and kinetic properties of his metal constructions creating light and shadow, gravity and weightlessness. The dramatic sensibility achieved in each sculpture originates from minimal geometric shapes confronting one another. These structures not only evoke emotion, but also create a poetic relationship with their surroundings
Ferro’s works are bringing a balance in between two disciplines – sculpture and motion, so they embody both poles, as described by Juan Manuel Bonet in ‘Drawings in Space.
Knopp Ferro was born in Cologne in 1953. From 1975 to 1977 the artist studied metal sculpture and performance art at the Academy of Art & Design in Cologne. He founded in the seventies the legendary artist group Jet Ferro and was part of the Zurich based performance theatre Bumper to Bumper. He has exhibited widely including Argentina, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. His work is part of several public collections including the Ute and Michael Berger Collection in Wiesbaden, Germany, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection in Miami, the Artothek Cologne in Germany, the MACBA Museum Art Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Collection of the Republic of Austria in Vienna. The artist currently undertakes large-scale commissions from Switzerland and Latin America. Knopp Ferro works and lives in Munich, Germany.
