Artists

Kathrin Sonntag Born in 1981 in Berlin | Lives and works in Berlin

Portrait

Kathrin Sonntag
Photo: Nina Hoffmann

Nothing is as it seems in Kathrin Sonntag’s works. Her photography, collages, sculptures and films, mostly presented in an installative context, revolve around the prerequisital aspects of perception, observation, and recognition.

With slight shifts of meaning and compositional alterations, Sonntag transforms everyday objects and situations into playhouses of subtle contradictions that repeatedly tests and puzzle our perception.

In her work, Sonntag focuses on the moment in which an ever so slight incongruity is slipped into seemingly familiar and well-known things, delightful slips in habitual ways of thinking and seeing, and everyday things develop a magical, at times even uncanny, potential. The slide presentation,Blame it on Morandi(2011), shows a series of 81pictures resembling still life taken in the artist’s studio. Their refreshing unusualness makes plain to the viewers—at least on closer inspection—that everything they think they are seeing could also be something completely different.

Education

bis 2006

BA and MA of Visual Arts, University of the Arts, Berlin

Awards

2011	DAAD Research Scholarship
2009	Swiss Art Award Preis der Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim Stiftung
2008	Residency of flacc workspace for visual artists in Gent, Belgium
2007	Sommerakademie „spectacle and situation“, Paul Klee Center, Bern

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2011	Mühsam ernährt sich das Einhorn, Kunstverein Hamburg Double Take, Galerie Kamm, Berlin
2010	Zum bunten Schwein, Samsa, Berlin (mit Jan Molzberger) ES, annex14, Bern Futur Intérieur, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zurich
2009	Mittnacht, Swiss Institute, New York Superkalifragilistigexpialigetik, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst GAK, Bremen Dracula’s Ghost, Galerie Kamm, Berlin
2007	Kathrin Sonntag at white light, Düsseldorf
2003	Heute bleibe ich daheim .., imug, sphn Galerie, Berlin

Group exhibitions (selections)

2012	State of the Art. New Contemporary Photography, NRW Forum, Düsseldorf
2011	L’ evento immobile, Casa Masaccio, San Valdarno, Italy making and art, stadtgalerie schwaz, Austria Voluntary Sculptures, LM Projects, Los Angeles
2010	Jewelry, Samsa, Berlin I Put A Frame On You, TÄT, Berlin Swiss Art Award, Messezentrum, Basel Where No Sun Shines, Bortolami Gallery at The Webster, Miami Leopards in the Temple, Sculpture Center, New York Berlin – Paris, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris
2009	The Filmic Conventions, FormContent, London Das Gespinst. Die Sammlung Schürmann zu Gast im Museum Abteiberg, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach Swiss Art Award, Messezentrum, Basel A la surface de l’infini, La Galerie, Noisy le Sec, France
2008	Privatsphäre, Nürnberger Kunstverein Kathrin Sonntag at FLACC, FLACC, Genk, Belgium Der Autorität, Kunstverein Arnsberg