R O B E R T   L A N Z

Between Substance and Trace – Painting as a State of Matter

Substance as Language – Matter in Transition

The Surface as Event Horizon – Pigment Processes in the Tension Field between Gravitation and Dissolution

Robert Lanz situates his artistic practice at the intersection of materiality, conceptual rigor, and procedural experimentation.


His work unfolds through overlapping layers of the microscopic and the cosmic, the chemical and the poetic. The surface becomes a resonant field – a space where pigments, metals, stones, and light are not mere materials but active agents in a dynamic process.

 

His paintings are not composed in the traditional sense, but emerge through an experimental logic of reaction, transformation, and decay – akin to geological or biological systems under controlled disruption. Lanz is less interested in the final image than in the painting as a site of continuous transition.

 

His series often span hundreds of works on paper, forming visual ecologies that are both meticulous and volatile. In contrast, his large-format paintings appear as concentrated zones – crystallizations of a process that elsewhere remains in flux.

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Pigment as a Cosmic Trace

Color becomes the residual signature of an event – shaped by temporal pressure, gravity, and molecular drift.

The Image Thinks in States of Matter

Between solid, liquid, and evaporated – painting emerges as a transitional form, a visible expression of thermodynamic systems.

The Surface as Resonant Space

Every impulse, every response inscribes itself into the skin of the painting – as an echo of light, touch, and entropy.
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Matter as a Carrier of Memory

What adheres, remains – pigment particles preserve moments like archives, driven by pressure, friction, and time.

Light as a Form-Giving Force

The eye does not merely see – light itself constructs the image: through scattering, reflection, and quantum flow.
Robert Lanz

Beyond the image, the field begins.

EDUCATION

2013 Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) / Berlin University of the Arts, Germany

Postgraduate Meisterschüler Degree (Meisterschülerabschluss) with Distinction, Faculty of Fine Arts

Academic equivalent to Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Mentored by Professor Leiko Ikemura

Artistic focus on contemporary painting, experimental material processes, and interdisciplinary methodologies, situated within a research-driven and conceptually grounded practice.

 

2011 Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) / Berlin University of the Arts, Germany
Graduated in Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts

Academic equivalent to Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Studied under Professor Leiko Ikemura

Specialisation in research-based, experimental practice within the field of fine arts, grounded in scientific methodology.

 

 

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

2013 Stipendium der Kunststiftung Kunze – Perdita & Hans Peter Kunze (Grant from the Perdita & Hans Peter Kunze Art Foundation)

 

 

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

KunststiftungKunze Perdita & Hans Peter Kunze

 
 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018 LAB I/2018 – Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg
2016 ROBERT LANZ – Braunschweiger Privatbank, Braunschweig

 

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS / SCREENINGS

2021 DOMINO 3 – Salve Berlin, Ortstermin 2, Kunstfestival Moabit – „RESET“, Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin

 

2018 KLEIN, ABER FEIN – From the Kunststiftung Perdita & Hans Peter Kunze scholarship recipients, KunstraumKunze, Gifhorn
2018 OFFBEAT – From the Class of Leiko Ikemura, SCHAU FENSTER, Raum für Kunst, Berlin

 

2017 WIR MAGIER – Leiko Ikemura und Meisterschüler, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg
2017 REBELLION – Berlin Projektraum für zeitgenössische Kunst und experimentelle Medien, (SCOTTY Enterprises e.V.), Berlin

 

2016 OPENING / EXHIBITION, KUNSTRAUMKUNZE, KunststiftungKunze, Gifhorn

 

2015 APRIVATE / PUBLICK, Städtische Galerie Schloß Wolfsburg, from the Kunststiftung Perdita & Hans Peter Kunze scholarship recipients as part of the exhibition series RE_VISION, November 17 – February 21, 2016, Wolfsburg

 

2014 AMPROJECT KUNSTWERKSTÄTTEN, Berlin
2014 LEIKO IKEMURA’S XXVI – From the Class of Leiko Ikemura, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin

 

2013 CONNECTED FOR THE MOMENT, Temporary private startup showroom, Mohrenstr. 11, Berlin
2013 MEISTERSCHÜLER EXHIBITION (MFA), Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), Berlin
2013 EXHIBITION BRÜHL CITY – For Max Ernst-Stipendium, Showroom – Max Ernst-Stipendium, Brühl Stadt

 

2012 キ KI – DAS IMMATERIELLE DER DINGE – From the Class of Leiko Ikemura, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin

 

2011 ABSOLVENT EXHIBITION (BFA), Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), Berlin

 

2010 FROM THE OTHER SIDE … – Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V., in cooperation with RWE AG Arnsberg, Arnsberg
2010 MYART & KLASSE LEIKO IKEMURA – Galerie Köstlin, Berlin
2010 THIS IS RED – From the Class of Leiko Ikemura, HALLE ZEHN / CAP Cologne e.V., Köln