Manuel Knapp “HERE, NOW”

Jim Kempner Fine Art

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Jim Kempner Fine Art presents HERE, NOW, the first American show of contemporary German sculptor, Manuel Knapp. The exhibition will feature Knapp’s newest geometric wall sculptures and a site-specific installation in the gallery sculpture garden.

Knapp’s limited materials –wood, nails, staples, cotton– offer him infinite compositional variations. His handcrafted compositions are based on logic and natural symmetries. As the artist describes, his work is, “on the edge of what is capable by the human eye; the appearance seems like an illusion…and makes the spectator question what he believes is fact.” Knapp’s work ranges in style, from architectural to fantastical, while retaining geometric order.

To begin, Knapp builds a wooden box and affixes nails to the interior. He fractures the edges of the box to create a new shape that mirrors, as well as defines the pattern of the string. His choice of string color further enhances the complex geometric planes and the perspective changes with the movement of the spectator. In Blue (2019), ranging shades of blue string create a kaleidoscopic effect. The lighter shades of string emphasize airiness within the angular terrain, while the darker string against the black wooden background creates the semblance of infinite depth. In comparison, Stealth Orange’s (2019) stacked planes of orange and white present assertive protrusions into space, confronting the viewer instead with an impenetrable mass.

Knapp’s craftsmanship and methodical approach
transforms simple materials into three-dimensional
mazes. He reflects, “I don’t always know where I end up
with my ideas, but I have no doubt how to get there. The
way seems clear to me by creating step by step [design]
for an evolution in slow motion. There is so much to explore, even after seven years of intense work, I am just getting started.”
Knapp’s art works have been acquired by private and public art collectors, and the permanent collections of the following private museums: Kunstwerk: Sammlung Klein; the Museum Ritter: Sammlung Marli Hoppe Ritter; and the Collection Pforzheim. Knapp has been commissioned to do site specific works at Galerie Deschler in Berlin, as well as a permanent installation at Schmallenberg (NRW) Town Hall. He lives and works in Grossglattbach, Germany.