Jannis Zell
Jannis Zell (Stuttgart, 1992) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Karlsruhe, Germany. He obtained his Diploma in Communication Design with a minor in Product Design from HfG Karlsruhe in 2019. Zell is particularly interested in parafiction, skeuomorphism, and the imitation of objects and their surfaces, playing with our expectations and perception towards objects. From ceramics and sculptural installations to drawings and videos, his works tap into the process of making three-dimensional bodies from previous two-dimensional images. By focussing on the back and forth translation and transformation between 2D images and 3D objects, Zell’s work across all media questions the stability of the material world and our place within it.
Alluding to ideas of archaeology and lost pasts, and the mysticism attached to certain objects, his body of work also sets out to articulate the speculative fictional narratives that arise from the friction of the mimicking of real-world objects and surfaces. Projects like Future Ruins (2019) aim to draw attention precisely to how objects are generated, whilst also questioning the relationship between past, present and future, specifically how is our present conceptualization of future and past artefacts materialised.
‘Plastic Palace’, 2019. Installation view, Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘Chicken Nugget Monolith’, 2019. Installation view, Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘Statue of Touch’, 2019. Installation view, Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘Cenotaph to the Bees’, 2019. Installation view, Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘Well of True Belief’, 2019. Installation view, Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
Future Ruins, 2019. Installation view, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘After Sun. Flower Monolith’, 2018. Installation view, From 2D to 3D to 2D, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
‘After Sun. Sun Monolith’, 2018. Installation view, From 2D to 3D to 2D, HfG Karlsruhe
‘After Sun. Protosynthesis’, 2018. Installation view, From 2D to 3D to 2D, HfG Karlsruhe
Solo Exhibitions:
2021
· Sense Of PlaceJan Van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2020
· The longer you look at the rock, the sooner you realize you are the rock, TV HIFI, Karlsruhe, Germany
2019
· Future Ruins, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, Germany
Group Exhibitions:
2020
· Fan No.1: Romer, TV-HIFI, Karlsruhe
· Stillleben #apfelundbirne, Galerie Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
· Fan No.1: Romer, Art Karlsruhe
· Fan No.2: Residence, Villa Gellert, Karlsruhe
· Fan No.4: Carousel, Haydn Platz, Karlsruhe
2019
· 100 Best Posters (DACH), In the Paper Gallery, 100 Beste Plakate, Seoul, South Korea
· Open Day, ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe
2018
· LuForm, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Aachen, Germany
· 100 Best Posters (DACH), Lucerne, Switzerland
· 100 Best Posters (DACH), La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
· ein&zwanzig IMM, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Germany
· CCC-Drop+Delinquent Network+Primitive Hut, Galerie Kernweine, Stuttgart, Germany
· 100 Best Posters (DACH), MAK (Museum für angewandte Kunst), Hamburg, Germany
· Kulturforum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
· 2D3D2D, Karlsruhe, Germany
2017
· Essensessentials, Eunique, Karlsruhe, Germany
· kkaarrlls, Salone del Mobile, Milan, Italy
· Salone di Mobile, Tortona Design Week, Milan, Italy
· Design Parade 12, Villa Noailles, France
· Eunique Art Fair, Karlsruhe, Germany
2016
· Kamuna, Karlsruhe, Germany