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