Born in 1976 in Heidelberg, Kitty Kraus lives and works in Berlin.

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The materials used by Kitty Kraus in her installations are chosen for their ability to transform: glass, ice, beams of light and colour, mirrors. They can appear, disappear, liquefy or explode. What interests Kitty Kraus is to capture this moment of instability, of passing from one state to another, and to use it as a means of mediation for emotions or to express a certain poetry.

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The realization of what can appear as a banal mechanical accident is a very precise process. For all her projects Kitty Kraus develops a unique method, which she first experiments with scale models that will constitute one or more lines of research that will aim to be implemented in minimalist devices, where alchemy and physics are combined.

 

Kitty Kraus's installations present blocks of colour and light, light bulbs trapped in ice, the liquid gradually spreads out to form abstract compositions from which a dark beauty is born, where physical destruction and metaphysical questioning coincide.

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One of his works consists of cubes whose walls are formed by mirrors each containing a 100-watt bulb, whose light beams are only visible at the edges. After 30 minutes, the overheated light bulbs explode the cubes. This violent act, becomes the symbol of a force that is released after being coerced, imprisoned.

Through this installation, Kitty Kraus contrasts an action set up in a specific social framework with the freedom that an experimental process can offer, which allows simple elements to become uncontrollable.

Kitty Kraus invites the spectator to question the current society where the only way to exist seems to be through consumption. His works propose to initiate a deep philosophical reflection that goes beyond the artistic field by leading us towards our capacity to refocus on the meaning of our own existence.

 

In Saché, Kitty Kraus has produced a body of work and experimented with various projects. She was able to use this time of residence to deepen the themes that have been present in her work for several years. She has designed a set of works in metal, whose physical qualities the artist has diverted, since from a rigid material she has obtained soft forms, which seem to unfold on their support.

The main installation consisted of metal lines tracing a path on the floor that guides us towards a mirror in which the space of the studio is reflected. This device functions as a sort of poetic mise en abîme of the space of the studio and the play of light that can occur there.

 

These works were presented in Zurich (Grieder Contemporary) where Kitty Kraus participated in an exhibition in collaboration with the artist Jonas Lipps (April 2016).

Kitty Kraus has been present on the international art scene since 2006, and several institutions have devoted solo exhibitions to her: Kunsthalle, Zurich (2008), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009), CAC Theseustempel Vienna (2011), White Cube, London (2011). Kitty Kraus regularly participates in group exhibitions What you see is where you're at, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2010) beyond minimal, (2011) Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Memories of the Future, The Olbritch Collection, La maison Rouge, Paris (2012).
She is represented by Galerie Neu in Berlin.