KLAUS PRIOR
biography anchor
KLAUS PRIOR
BIOGRAPHY
Born
1945 Wesel, Germany
Residence
Lugano, Switzerland
Education
Technical training in turbine construction
1964
First longer stay in Switzerland
1966
Residence in Switzerland, first attempts as a painter. Evening courses at the St. Gallen School of Arts and Crafts
1973
Freelance artist in Lugano, Canton Ticino
1989
Becomes a Swiss citizen
Numerous solo and group exhibitions in various European countries
Klaus Prior’s works, biography and literature is listed in SIKART (Lexicon of Swiss Artists)
WORK
With their radical expressiveness, raw vitality and rough directness, Klaus Prior’s works confront the viewer defiantly with elementary questions about man’s existence in the world. As a painter and sculptor, Prior always places the human in its fragile existence at the centre of artistic intentions.
Klaus Prior’s experiences during the post-war period, when he was confronted with the massive destruction of his home town of Wesel on the Lower Rhine, had a formative influence on his work.
In the brittle material wood Klaus Prior has found the ideal medium to expressively capture his creative temperament and his time-critical attitude in form. From large-scale outdoor sculptures to small-format pedestal sculptures, he explores the spectrum of figurative wood sculpture in the field of tension between concrete figuration and expressive abstraction. In an intuitive working process without preliminary studies, cut out of the block with a chainsaw, the coarse and bulky looking figures and heads with their seemingly bruised surfaces of notches, stitches, hatchings reveal the artist’s rough handling of the hard natural material of cedar, sequoia or oak.
Painting and sculpture intertwine in a haunting way in the work of Klaus Prior. As a painter-sculptor he convincingly struggles for the renewal of the figure on the surface and in space. His art can be interpreted as an essential search for the primal essence of man, for the core questions of our existence.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS (since 2006)
2006
-Milano, Galleria Compagnia del Disegno
-Baden Baden, SWR with Ena Lindenbauer
– Lugano, Galerie L’Incontro
-Arth am See, Galerie Meier with Giovanni Huber
2007
-Galleria L’incontro, Lugano
-Crailsheim, Stadtmuseum
-Allschwil-Basel, Galerie Aphold, ‘Collaborative Works: Armin Göhringer-Klaus Prior’
2008
-Galerie Keller, Mannheim, ‘Collaborative Works: Armin Göhringer-Klaus Prior’
-Kluisbergen, Gallery Phoenix
-Kloster Roggenburg, (mit Jupp Linssen, Klaus Lomnitzer, Willi Siber)
-Thun, Galerie Art-House
-Warthausen – Oberhöfen, Galerie Knoll-art
2009
-Offenburg, Künstlerkreis Ortenau, Galerie im Artforum
-Kißlegg , Neues Schloss – Museum Wachter with Armin Göhringer
2010
-Allschwil/Basel, Galerie Aphold
2011
-Mannheim, Galerie Keller
-Kluisbergen, Gallery Phoenix with Armin Göhringer
2012
-Leibertingen, Galerie Wohlhüter with Armin Göhringer
-Markdorf, Kunstverein Markdorf e. V.
-Hagnau am Bodensee, Gemeinde Hagnau
2013
-Pergine Valsugana Trento, Castel Pergine
-Ingelheim am Rhein, Rathausplatz Ingelheim
-Ravensburg, Galerie Doris Hölder
2014
-Leutkirch im Allgäu, Galerie im Kornhaus und Innenstadt
-Badenweiler, Galerie Angela Lenz
-Küsnacht am Rigi, Galerie Reichlin
2015
-Kiβlegg, Museum Wachter, mit Ulrich Scheitenberger
-Lahr, Städtische Galerie und Innenstadt
2016
-Feldberg Falkau, Galerie Angela Lenz
-Zug, Galerie Reichlin
-Locarno, Pinacoteca Casa Rusca
2017
-Ravensburg, Galerie Doris Hölder
-Gnosca, Chiesa San Giovanni Battista
-Murten, Galerie Werthmüller
-Lugano, Fafa Fine Art
-Zug, Galerie Urs Reichlin
-Leibertingen, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
2018
-Munich, Galerie Benjamin Eck
-Locarno, Wolf Gallery
-Krailing, EOS-Kunst-Raum
-Zug, Galerie Urs Reichlin, with Armin Göhringer and Christopher Lehmpfuhl
2019
-Kiβlegg, Schauraum
-Zülpich, Galerie Roy
-Ravensburg, Galerie 21·06, with Phil Dera
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (since 2006)
2006
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Schrade, Galerie Felchlin
-Kluisbergen, Galleries Beukenhof
-Heiligkreuz im Entlebuch, Figuren in der Landschaft
-Turin, Scultura Internazionale al Castello di Agliè
2007
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Schrade
-Campione d’Italia, Galleria Civica
-Mühlhausen-Dachrieden, Sculptor symposeum, with Heiko Börner, Ralf Klement, Jürgen Neuman
2008
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Schrade
-Assens, Espace culturel
-Balingen, sculpture walk
-Roggenburg, Kloster Roggenburg
-Gernsbach, Kunstweg am Reichenbach
-Ettlingen, sculpture in public spaces
2009
-Ettlingen, Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe
-Singen, Art Museum
-Lugano, Galleria L’Incontro
-Mannheim, Galerie Keller
2010
Art Karlsruhe, Sculpture Area with Armin Göhringer
-Mannheim, Galerie Keller
2011
-Zell am Harmersbach
-Bern , Fondation Jetzt Kunst
2012
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Ursula Keller
-Gutenstein, Kunst am Fluss
2013
-Sutz-Lattrigen, Von Rütte-Gut
-Torino, Scultura Internazionale al Castello di Racconigi
2014
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
-Bern, Fondation Jetzt Kunst
2015
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
-Bad Ragaz and Vaduz, 6.Triennale
-Zurich, Galerie Martin Jedlitschka
2016
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
-Leutkirch, Sculptures in Public Spaces
2017
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
-Milano, Galleria Compagnia del Disegno
2018
-Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Werner Wohlhüter
-Lugano, Five Gallery
2019
-Murten-Morat, Fondation Jetzt Kunst
MEDIA
Corporated Collections
Catalogue
The exhibition catalogue by EOS (2018) displays sculptures and paintings on location
Press
Press release: Reduziert auf das Wesentliche- Kultur-kunst in die Stadt Lahr