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

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The materials used by Kitty Kraus in its 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 experiments first of all from scale models that will constitute one or several lines of research that will aim to be set up in minimalist devices, where alchemy and physics are combined.

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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, which makes physical destruction and metaphysical questioning coincide.

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

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

Kitty Kraus invites the viewer to question the current society where the only way to exist seems to be through consumption. Her works propose to initiate a profound philosophical reflection that goes beyond the artistic realm by leading us towards our ability to refocus on the meaning of our own existence.

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In Saché, Kitty Kraus has produced a body of work and experimented with various projects. She was able to use this residency time to explore themes that have been present in her work for several years. She has conceived a series 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 was composed of metal lines tracing a path on the ground 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).

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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.

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