Carl Maria Kemper is a conceptual artist living and working in Hamburg. He studied at the msa I münster school of architecture (Master of Arts in Architecture) and worked in this field before joining various expeditions of the artist Julian Charrière and Johannes Förster to polar regions of the earth, mining areas or coal power plants for several years. The resulting works, such as Towards No Earthly Pole or Controlled Burn has been shown at MASI Lugano, Dallas Museum Of Art, MOMA San Francisco and the Langen Foundation Hombroich, among others.

Through these strong impulses from conceptual space generation through architecture, contextual art and the environment, in the sense of the ecological but also social environment, Kemper has found the way to express and transform his own concepts into works. He is sourcing those impressions of intense stays in fragile ecosystems like in the Arctic Circle, in Iceland or the glacier regions of Europe, as well as Coal Mining Areas such as Lützerath in Germany influence his constant impulse to conceptual artistic engagement. Social issues in general, which occupy and shape us, are also reflected in his work which are multimedia-based.

The decision for a specific medium, material, form, extent, or tool to work with to formulate a project always arises from the necessity and the narrative of the particular subject matter. From each topic that Carl Kemper deals with, a nucleus is to be isolated and distilled down to the essentials in a work. Some works can be momentary photographs that are analyzed, expanded and deepened in connection with a textual essay or interpretation. They are often objects that he brings back from field studies, which function simply through their isolation or removal from the site as a kind of piece of evidence or forensic documentation of destructive processes. They are shown like readymades in relation to other works, solo or through marginal processing or modification, thereby making complex themes accessible.




Selected Exhibitions & Recognitions


2023
Leaving Holocene, Mom Art Space, Hamburg
12 x 1, Galleries Association Hamburg, with Tom Reichstein Contemporary, Jupiter First Floor, Hamburg
Verstrickt, Zerbröckelt (Entangled, Crumbled), Tom Reichstein Contemporary, Hamburg

2022
Climate Art Festival, Sandtorkai, Hamburg
POSTION, Fabrik der Künste, Hamburg
Gruppenausstellung, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven
Neustart Kultur Stipendium, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (Scholarship, Foundation Art Fund, Bonn)

2021
Union, Kunsthaus Sootboern, Hamburg
Admission to the Professional Association of Fine Artists (BBK), Hamburg
Hamburger Zukunftsstipendium für Bildende Kunst, BKM (Future Scholarship for Fine Arts, Hamburg)