Enclosure
| Edition | Original Art |
|---|---|
| Sujet | Fantasy and Science Fiction |
| Technique | Painting – Acrylic on Canvas |
| Height | 70 cm |
| Width | 100 cm |
| Length/Depth | 2 cm |
Medium:
Acrylic on canvas
Technique:
Painting
Shipping:
The artwork will be shipped stretched onto a stretcher frame – including a certificate of authenticity and the artist’s signature on the reverse.
About the work:
"Enclosure" – in English: "Approach"...
In this abstract-surreal acrylic painting, I play with organic forms and strong colour contrasts.
I partly draw on the forms and aesthetics of graffiti tags from my urban surroundings, but I dispense with any reference to actual words or writing.
The dynamic, energetic visual language suggests movement and is intended to challenge the viewer.
"Enclosure" makes sense to me, on the one hand, because the painting reveals itself particularly well when viewed from a short distance.
On the other hand, it is my first painting on canvas following a lengthy period during which I produced only watercolours and prints, and is therefore my first “foray” into acrylic painting.
I came up with the title during a conversation with a musician I know, who explained the term “Enclosure” to me in the following context:
“Musically speaking, I’ve come to understand this as a principle: first playing around a note playfully from above and below before then striking it deliberately – with the appropriate emphasis.
In doing so, this note – which is understood as the target note – expresses the essence of the chord structure one intends to convey.”
I could relate to this description in my own painting process, in the way the final image crystallises through the process.
Manuel Mohr
.
Lives and works in Leipzig
. I paint colourful, energetic visual worlds in which representational motifs meet abstract structures. Surreal elements blend with suggested landscapes, and fantastical forms with romantic views of nature. In my work, a vibrant dialogue emerges between order and chaos, between dream and reality.
My painting is process-driven and intuitive. I usually begin without a fixed sketch – guided solely by a sense of colour, rhythm and composition. Step by step, forms, surfaces and structures develop, interacting with one another and transforming each other. Occasionally, I incorporate representational motifs that fit into the interweaving of abstract elements like junctions.
My preferred material for larger-scale works is acrylic paint, which serves as the ideal medium for a process-oriented approach, complemented by spray paints on self-primed canvases. Multiple interacting layers of paint, as well as aleatoric techniques such as dripping, grattage or masking off shapes, give rise to complex surfaces and colour modulations. I am particularly interested in the interplay of colours – their harmony, their tension and the way they create space, movement and rhythm. Much like a musical composition, I arrange colours, shapes and patterns into visual rhythms and repetitions.
My paintings oscillate between flatness and spatial depth, between expressive gesture and controlled structure. Each work follows its own internal logic, which only crystallises during the course of the painting process.
At the heart of my work lies the question of human perception: how do we form our image of reality? What do we actually see – and what do we fill in from our own imaginations? I see my paintings as open spaces of perception. Upon prolonged viewing, different structures and pictorial spaces emerge; each viewer discovers different connections.
Through my paintings, I aim to facilitate an immediate, sensory experience. Rather than immediately categorising what is seen in a rational manner, I invite viewers to let their minds wander freely and to engage with colour, rhythm and form. A sense of disorientation can be a productive moment in this process, challenging familiar patterns of perception and opening up new perspectives. In this way, my paintings become canvases for individual associations.
Ultimately, my work comes into being because it is, for me, an experimental space: here I explore the uncertain, the unknown and the unconscious in a dialogue with the emerging image that remains enigmatic to me. And from this also arises a dialogue with the viewer, with the desire to inspire people and heighten their awareness of the complexity and beauty of the world.
Born in 1987 in Stuttgart, GermanyL
ives and works in
Leipzig
EDUCATION
2014 – 2015Master’s student
under Professor Franz Ackermann
2014
Dipl
oma
in Painting / Graphic Art, State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
2009–2014
Stud
ied
painting / graphic art under Professor Franz Ackermann
2008–2009
Community
service200
7
A
-levels at
Überlingen
Grammar
SchoolSELECTED EXHIBITIONS / SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025
‘
Wachtraum
’
, Durchblick Galerie, Leipzig
2024‘
Fliegende Farben’, Boot GgmbH, Leipzig
2023
Westfach
2023‘
Draw me like one of your dancers’, Werk 2 2016/1
7
“Galerie Ahnen”, Luis Leu, Karlsruhe
2015‘
TOP
15’
Master’s Students’ Exhibition, Reutlingen
2014
‘
Anschluss
’
, University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe
2014‘Annual
Exhibition’, AdBK Karlsruhe
2014
‘Members’
Exhibition’, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2014‘
Layers
’
, Graduation Exhibition at the AdBK Karlsruhe
2013‘Members’
Exhibition’, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2012‘Annual
Exhibition’, AdBK Karlsruhe
2012‘
Baustelle 5’, Neuwerk, Konstanz
2011
‘Annual Exhibition’, AdBK Karlsruhe
AWARDS
/ GRANTS
2011
Award winner at the Academy of Fine Arts
,
Karlsruhe
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023
Ahoi, Leipzig City Magazine, “Reality is created in the mind”
2023
Interview with the Leipzig art blog https://ichliebekunst.com/manuel-mohr-challenges-
of
-a-
young
-
artist
/
2015
Reutlinger General Anzeiger on the exhibition “TOP 15
”20
1
4Karlsruhe
University of
Applied Sciences on the exhibition “Anschluss
”2012
Russ, Julia: ‘Artistic Construction Site’, Südkurier
2011 Hü
bl, Michael: “Three Days for the Curious”, Badische Neueste
Nachrichten
PUBLICATIONS
2015
Cat
alog
ue
TOP 15 for the exhibition of the same name, edited by Axel Heil
2014Cat
alog
ue
for the graduation exhibition LAYERS, edited by Manuel Mohr
