Stephane Leonard

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Stephane Leonard (born April 19, 1979 in Berlin ) is a German artist. He lives and works mainly in Brandenburg and Berlin.

education

Stephane Leonard studied philosophy and art history at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 2001 to 2002 . From 2002 to 2007 he studied fine art with a focus on drawing under Professor Paco Knöller at the University of the Arts in Bremen . In addition, Leonard was a guest auditor in Professor Jean-François Guiton's video art class and also took part in various courses in new and electronic music. From 2007 to 2008 Leonard was a master student of Paco Knöller. After studying in Bremen and longer stays in New York in 2005 and 2006, Leonard returned to Berlin in 2006.

plant

Stephane Leonard works in a wide variety of media. His work includes drawings, paintings, sound installations, music publications, video installations, music videos, films and texts. One focus is the large-format drawings, but sound collages and video works also play an important role in Leonard's artistic activity. The connections between acoustic and visual art are particularly evident in the drawings. In older works it is often not clear whether the drawing is a score for a piece of music or whether it was inspired by the music. New works deal largely with the line itself. Large-format drawings on canvas or paper, often carried out with a spray can or as a monotype print, show lines that condense into forms or objects, or as Leonard himself calls them, "almost objects in the process of passing away or arising".

Artistic career

Thanks to his parents, an architect who received his training at the Weissensee School of Art , and a civil engineer, both born in Berlin, Stephane Leonard was surrounded early on by art books on the shelves at home and art prints on the walls, especially by Lyonel Feininger and El Lissitzky . At the age of 12, Leonard began to draw intensively. Initially mainly letter abstractions, later also figures and graphic compositions. This led to a career as a graffiti artist. At the age of 16, Leonard said he discovered a picture of Cy Twombly in an art book , the abstraction of which he combined with the greatest freedom and which from then on aroused in him the desire to become an artist himself. During a student exchange program that took the 17-year-old to Missouri, USA for 7 months, he began painting on canvases and making small sculptures out of clay. After his return, his murals changed and were expanded to include elements of street art, such as paper gluing and stencil technology. Combinations of letters became increasingly abstract murals with a length of up to 20 m. While still at school, Stephane Leonard won various art prizes for schoolchildren, as well as multiple participation in printing seminars, including in Neubrandenburg in the Atelier Rauch , which took place under the guidance of Augustin M. Noffke and whose work left a lasting impression on Leonard. Leonard earned his first own money with commissioned work for wall paintings, as well as the instruction of graffiti courses in youth clubs. At the age of 20, Leonard began to work mainly on paper and canvas in preparation for art college. In 2000, while on a trip through Italy in the footsteps of Cy Twombly, the desire to study fine art with a focus on drawing grew stronger. After studying philosophy and art history for a year in Berlin, Leonard passed the entrance examination at the Bremen University of the Arts , where he studied under Paco Knöller up to and including his master class year . He also spent a lot of time in the college's printing workshops, was a guest auditor in the video art class, and attended various seminars on new and electronic music. In 2005, Stephane Leonard left Bremen and moved to New York for a few months in the USA, where he worked, among other things, as an assistant for the video artist Shelly Silver and the music label Mute Records . In addition to drawings, the experimental documentary "Coney Island, USA" and various sound works were made in New York. In 2006, after his return to Berlin, he moved into his first studio and has been working as a freelance artist ever since.

Musical career

Stephane Leonard was initially active as a singer and lyricist in various formations, such as the alternative punk band 'Baukies' and the rock band 'Diamond Day', but began in 2001 first under the synonym 'plastikk' and later under his own name as a soloist for laptop-based electronic music . In 2003 he founded the artist collective and label for new and experimental music naivsuper together with the filmmaker and photographer Claudio Pfeifer , which from then on was responsible for some of Stephane Leonard's publications. Naivsuper developed in the following years into a platform for the joint artistic work of the two founders and, in addition to the music publications, which were discontinued in 2010, became a production company for joint films and videos as well as a publisher for small-format artist publications.

A typical feature of his musical style were the compositions based on so-called field recordings and manipulated samples , which range between almost silence and loud musical ranting. His music was experimental, electronic to organic, with moments of contact with drone music, electronica , ambient and even noise . The album Lykkelig Dry , released in 2008 , which was also Leonard's last physical release (only followed by an online EP), was also described as a glitch and repeatedly compared with the atmosphere in the music of Fennesz . Stephane Leonard regularly worked in cooperation with musicians from a wide variety of genres. Together with Marcel Türkowsky they formed the Duo Leo Mars and with Ansgar Wilken and Michael Rieken the Trio Julijuni . In addition, Leonard was active as a composer and musician for the Berlin laptop orchestra Endliche Automaten , and at times as a member of the Dutch free jazz ensemble around Gerard Ammerlaan . Performances with the laptop orchestra took Leonard through Eastern Europe and as far as Mallorca. As a solo artist, he has also performed several times in New York, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Spain and countless times in Germany and Berlin.

In addition to his own music production, Leonard also worked as a curator and organizer. So z. B. from 2003 to 2005 as co-founder and initiator of the Plastik Club in Bremen, which organized monthly concerts and art events, and from 2008 to 2009 as curator for the Electronic Church , a space for experimental music and performance in Berlin.

Cinematic career

In 2003, Stephane Leonard began working with a video camera for the first time. As part of his studies of fine arts at the University of the Arts in Bremen, he made a documentary film together with Claudio Pfeifer about various living and living situations in Bremen. Leonard says today that working on this film was the best cinematic training ever, as he was "thrown into the deep end" confronted with all sorts of problems at once and the solution to these problems gave him a comprehensive insight into and overview of all aspects of filmmaking gave. This was followed by a video installation and first music videos, among others for the band Seidenmatt (today: SDNMT ) and Torchous from Berlin. After many smaller productions, experiments and short films, Leonard shot his first music video for the national market in 2010 for the Hamburg band Hundreds . This was followed by award-winning and internationally published videos for the Berlin band Bodi Bill as well as several videos for Me and My Drummer , Clarence + Napoleon , but also Cäthe , Einar Stray , Rue Royale , UNS , Peer , UNMAP and The / Das , to name just a few call. Leonard tried to deepen and further develop his own artistic language with all videos, but this was not always possible in the commercial exploitation of the videos, so that in 2014 he withdrew from the production of videos without artistic aspirations.

Awards

  • 2007/2008 master class under Paco Knöller
  • 2007 Video Art Award of the City of Bremen
  • 2008 nomination for the master class scholarship: Young Art Essen
  • 2009 Composition tour with the Endlichen Automaten (Laptop Orchestra Berlin) through Eastern Europe supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation , the Hungarian Capital of Culture Pécs and the Goethe Institute
  • 2010 artist residency at the USF in Bergen, Norway
  • 2010 Composition grant from the Schering Foundation in cooperation with MitOst for the finite automata (Laptop Orchester Berlin)
  • 2011 Winner of an Award of Excellence at the Los Angeles Movie Awards for the music video 'Bodi Bill - Brand New Carpet'
  • 2012 Winner of the Best Music Video Award at the Porto7 Oporto International Film Festival for the music video 'Bodi Bill - What'
  • 2013 exhibition grant for the Städtische Galerie im Turm in Berlin-Friedrichshain
  • 2015 exhibition grant and artist in residence at Maus Habitos in Porto, Portugal
  • 2016 exhibition grant for the temporary gallery in the Quartiershalle Campus Rütli - CR², Berlin

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 2002 temporary gallery theme shops, Berlin
  • 2004 University of the Arts, Bremen (intermediate diploma)
  • 2006 Galerie Invalid, Berlin - 'New York Short Stories'
  • 2008 OWSUM Art Space, Groningen (NL) - 'copy.space.copy.ship'
  • 2010 Podium Art Space, Oslo, NO - 'I am here, please destroy me'
  • 2013 Staub Shop / Gallery Berlin - 'Crazy Diamond'
  • 2013 naive super gallery, Berlin - 'HOUSTON I AM THE PROBLEM'
  • 2013 Galerie im Turm, Berlin - 'YOU ARE MY FREEDOM / I AM YOUR PRISON' 2014
  • 2013 okazi gallery, Berlin - 'Envy eat up the soul'
  • 2015 Maus Habitos, Porto, Portugal - 'Trauma'
  • 2015 Projectspace 404, Bremen - 'Chasing A Ghost'
  • 2015 okazi gallery, Berlin
  • 2016 Temporary gallery in the Quartiershalle Campus Rütli - CR², Berlin - 'Islands'

Group exhibitions (selection)

  • 2003 Bangkok University Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand - 'Bangkok-Bremen'
  • 2004 Focke Museum, Bremen
  • 2004 New Museum Weserburg, Bremen - 'HfK meets REM: Electronic Music Series'
  • 2005 Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen - 'Stable lateral position' (July-June with Dave Allen)
  • 2005 Contemporary Artist Center North Adams, MA (USA) - 'Unsilently'
  • 2006 Diapason Gallery, New York, NY, USA - 'Sound Performance'
  • 2006 Galerie Pankow, Berlin - 'Free Field'
  • 2006 Kunsthalle Bremen - 40 years of video art
  • 2006 Flux Factory Queens, NY (USA) - 'Works on Paper'
  • 2007 Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen - '30 years sponsorship award '
  • 2007 University of the Arts Bremen - 'Fantasy' and 'Diploma Exhibition'
  • 2008 New Museum Weserburg, Bremen - 'Video Art Award'
  • 2008 Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen - 'Infinite (master class)'
  • 2006 Kyrgyz National Museum for Fine Arts - 'Package for Kyrgyzstan'
  • 2009 General Public, Berlin - 'Ubiquitous Oscillations'
  • 2010 Riga Art Space Riga, Estonia - 'SEE STARS'
  • 2010 Manzara Perspectives Istanbul, Turkey - 'EVEN MY MUM CAN MAKE A BOOK'
  • 2010 New Art Association Wuppertal, GER - 'Utopia / Dystopia' 2011
  • 2011 Jump Tower Gallery Cologne - 'PogoBooks Art Show'
  • 2011 Neonchocolate Galerie Berlin - 'naivsuper Book / PogoBooks Art Show'
  • 2011 General Public Artspace Berlin - 'Naivsuper Book / PogoBooks Art Show'
  • 2012 South Korea - 'Zine Pages Fest'
  • 2013 Kunstverein Tiergarten / Galerie Nord Berlin - 'Anonymous Drawers 2013'
  • 2013 Galerie Delikatessenhaus Leipzig - 'Anonymous Drawers 2013'
  • 2013 Temporary Art Center (TAC) Eindhoven, NL - 'Anonymous draftsmen 2013'
  • 2013 Sixtus Villa Berlin - 'Undercurrent'
  • 2013 Das Gift Artspace Berlin - 'Shambolic'
  • 2014 Pavilion at the Milchhof - 'Anonymous Drawers 2014'
  • 2014 Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation - 'Brandenburg Art Prize 2014'

Discography

Publications

  • Narrow film EP (sinnbus, 2002)
  • Narrow film maker RMX 2003 EP (naive super, 2003)
  • Hearing theater (naive super, 2004)
  • Elegy (serein, 2005)
  • TRi (luvsound, 2006)
  • Exhibit (Froggi, 2006)
  • Crown Heights (luvsound, 2007)
  • Lykkelig Dyr (Heilskabaal, naive super, 2008)
  • Please destroy me (Frozen Elephants, 2010)

With plastic doll

  • 26 secret codes to brainwash your neighbor (naivsuper, 2004)

With Leo Mars

  • lightears (naive super 2008)

Compilations

  • VA bias (luumu, 2004)
  • VA Tracks in the Snow (serene, 2005)
  • VA Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet (disquiet, 2006)
  • VA OIO (serein, 2006)
  • VA Fieldrecording Festival (2006)
  • VA Berlin taperun (2010)

Contributions

  • Christophe Bailleau: La Lude / La Sonde (naive super, 2006)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leonard, Stephane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin