Welcome to Earth Art

November 1, 2009

Artist: Leon Kühn

Background

My immediate environment is what inspires me, ranging from the people, culture, objects, thoughts and especially materials that I come in contact with. I have a close relationship to materials I find in nature that can be used or recycled. I often work in layers, building a texture and “feeling” into the work, letting the material influence the result, not so much the original idea.

Born in South Africa in 1971, I moved to Sweden in 2001 and completed my education in painting, drawing, graphical printing and pottery at Folks Universitetet in Stockholm. In 2004 I moved to Kenya and worked in an art collective, where I developed my techniques of building up collages from various materials like, pigments, sand, textile, hand made paper, rusted metal sheets, various animal dung etc. 
In 2005 I moved back to Sweden where I continued working and exhibiting in various solo and group exhibitions in Africa and Europe.

Materials

Mostly I make use of a various natural pigments from Africa to build up the colours found in my work. Some of the pigments have special value for example:

  • Green pigment originates from Lake Turkana (Northen Kenya) in the Great Rift Valley which is considered the “Birth place of man”
  • Red pigment is ochre was used for many thousands of years on rock paintings by ancient cultures and today still as decoration and in ceremonies by the Masai, Sumburu and other tribes around Africa
  • White pigment is fossilized fresh water plankton found as sediment around Lake Naivasha in Kenya
  • Orange pigment is from South Africa and is especially used by the Sesotho people in decorating the exterior of their houses

The objects build up on the canvas is sculptured by very fine sea sand from Zanzibar or Fårö Gotland
Various other materials and objects I find in nature are often worked onto the canvass building up a collage of creative ideas.

Exhibitions:

Sweden:

  • Galleri Eva Solvang, Östermalm; September 2010
  • Exhibition, at Liten Kulturfestivalen, Fårö, July 2010
  • Svensk Ten, spring collection, 2010
  • Exhibition, Earth Art, Adesso Galleri, Södermalm 2009
  • Group exhibition Galleri Eva Solvang, Östermalm, 2009
  • Exhibition at Galleri SoStockholm at Kungsträdgården December 2008
  • Solo exhibition Galleri/studio Alskog, Gotland July 2008
  • Solo exhibition at Galleri Sostockholm at Kungsträdgården April 2008
  • Solo exhibition Galleri Hagström, Gamla Stan 2008
  • Konstnärshuset, KB (konstnärsbaren) 2007
  • Tyresö slot 2007
  • Solo exhibition: Ostergök Restaurang: 2007
  • Galleri Nybroviken, 2006
  • Art Moderna Gallery, 5th anniversary of gallery, group exhibition with “young and upcoming artists”, 2006.
Solo exhibition at Konstnärshuset, KB (Konstnärsbaren) 2005.

International:

  • Senegal: Dak’art art bienalle, May 2006, environmental installation on “tragic beauty” in Dakar.
  • Norway: Transvangarde and eco art exhibition October and November 2006, in Oslo.
  • United Kingdom: travelling exhibition in the United Kingdom with the Ya_Africa artists (various galleries), January-November 2006. 
Spain Barcelona, at Sala Barna, Grupo Batik Art for the 30th anniversary art fair in October and November 2005.
  • Kenya: various group and solo exhibitions between 2004-2005 

Contact:

Website: www.leonkuhn.com
www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/l/leonkuhn/
email: kuhnleon@hotmail.com
Tel: +46 (0)73 645 2121