Robert Kraiss

Robert Kraiss creates dense, labor-intensive drawings that dissolve before our eyes and then reemerge in a psychedelic spectrum of color. The artist's vigorous mark-making brings his mythological imagery to the brink of destruction. In the untitled drawing for this exhibition, the space that usually oscillates through his large scale works has been replaced with one of coagulation, owed, in part, to the artists' experiments with a material called Plusterstiffe, a three-dimensional children's paint from Germany that produces a dimensionality and unique textural effect. 

Robert Kraiss (b.1972) studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Georg Herold (master class student) and Oswald Wiener 2000-2006. Kraiss has had solo exhibitions at Tobias Hantmann, Berlin; Galerie Norbert Arns, Cologne; Galerie Desaga, Cologne; Lungengasse, Cologne; Gallery Susanne Burmester, Rügen; and Artothek, Cologne. The artist has received grants from the 2012 Art Fund Catalog Funding Foundation, 2011 Istanbul scholarship from the city of Cologne, 2010 Art Fund Foundation annual grant, 2008 Art Fund Foundation Catalog Funding with MAXIM, 2007 scholarship from the Düsseldorfer Kunstverein, and 2004 Scholarship from the Friends of the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The artist works and lives in Cologne, Germany. Kraiss substitute professorship at university of Halle in Wintersemester 2020. The artist also held a Substitute Professorship position  at The Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.