Born in 1970 in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia/Serbia, Nándor Angstenberger is a German Serbian artist working and living in Berlin, Germany.
Nándor is a multi-media sculptor. His works are often large in scale, filling up the exhibition space in new and intriguing ways. The parts making up a whole sculpture come from a wide range of material. From man-made materials like polystyrene, to natural sources like stones and shells, feathers, berries, and sugar.
Nándor Angstenberger creates scenes out of his sculptures. He set each piece of a whole in place to engage the viewer in a riveting story. Describing himself as “a builder of worlds”, the artist uses materials the world has to offer in his sculptures. The materials Nándor uses are not traditional in the craft of sculpture. Using primarily found objects, the artist offers his artworks a secondary layer of meaning. Whilst the artist arranges these objects in a certain way to convey a story, an idea, a proposal for the future, the found objects retain their own story. Sometimes accessible to Nándor Angstenberger. Sometimes inaccessible to anyone that looks upon the sculpture.
Education
- 1992 Private Art School, P-Art, the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg
- 1999 Diploma with Excellence
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Artist Statement
“If somebody is asking me, what my artistic field as a Visual Artist is, I answer: “I am literally a builder of the worlds”.
But I am also a collector, an archivist, a folder, a cutter, a curious seeker and a finder.
My organic growing constructions are neither models for something or of something.
These constructions are life drafts, suggestions or proposals for new ideas and space concepts, but also drafts for not realisable constructions out of intermediate worlds. My materials, which I use, are mostly found objects, left behind, forgotten or lost. These materials have patina, they have marks of scratches, discolorations or deformations, but these life marks are making this material, my working material, valuable. The material is mostly very small, often overlooked, but in its compilation the magic of things develops.
And I use found objects out of nature, too. I want to invite the observer, to explore the small things of daily life in a new way, to appreciate the beauty of the inconspicuous. My works are also comments on the crisis of privacy or the loss of stable identities, in our global world certainty gets dissolved, and absolutely everything turns into (work) material.”
Contemplation is what Nandor intends to inspire in the viewers of his work. The usage of found, everyday objects aids this process. By looking upon a fantastical and unfamiliar scene, the viewer realises it is made out of objects they have seen and interacted with in the everyday. This juxtaposition of the strange made out of the familiar positions the viewer of Nandor’s work in an exploration of the mundane and the appreciation of the beauty of normality.
The artist also engages in other socially pressing themes in his creations. Particularly, Nandor is concerned with commenting on the crisis of privacy with the rise of data and technology. Often, artworks created question the future of humankind in relation to machines. Another field of enquiry crucial to the artist is the loss of stable identities. Living between identities of belonging himself, Nandor creates powerful and gripping artworks that speak to those who suffer the same fate of uncertainty as himself in our contemporary world. The sculptures created address the loss of certainty through themes of transition, transformation, and dissolution.
Selected Events
Solo Exhibition
- 2022 SwingbySix, Poolhaus-Blankenese Stiftung with Dorothea Goldschmidt
- 2021 “Error Code” with Marcell Naubert, Deiglan Gallery, Akureyri, Iceland
- 2021 “Cat’s Cradle” with Ross Alexander-Payne, Salon Oblique at Bärenzwinger, Berlin
- 2021 “Auction Kiosk feat. Paradies Offine”, Insight Lois, Berlin
- 2019 “Karma Redux”, House of Hermes presents Nándor Angstenbergers, Steinbrennermüller Berlin
- 2019 “between categories”, stage design for New Music, Philharmonie de Paris, France
- 2017 “Voyager”, Kunstverein, Bellevue-Saal Wiesbaden
- 2016 “Hyperion” Zepp Lab, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen
- 2016 “Körper Schatten”, stage design, Ackerstadtpalast, Berlin
- 2016 “Accumulation” with Goran Tomcic, SomoS Art Space, Berlin
- 2014 “KHOM”, Susanne Burmester Gallery, Kronprinzenpalais, Putbus Rügen
- 2011 Nándor Angstenberger, Toshifumi Hirose, The Coop Gallery invited by into / Berlin
- 2010 “Pandemonium“, Gallery Delikatessenhaus e.V. Leipzig
- 2010 “Pandora“, super bien!, Hothouse for contemporary Art, Berlin
Group Exhibition
- 2022 Lycra Project Space, Hamburg
- 2022 “Berliner Zimmer”, Vertretung des Landes Baden-Württemberg, Berlin
- 2022 “Alles IV”, studio im Hochhaus, Bezirksamt Lichtenberg, Amt für Weiterbildung und Kultur, Berlin
- 2022 “Die Blaue Nacht” Light Festival Historische Felsengänge, Nürnberg
- 2021 “GAWINA, und andere Experimente” Ludwig Museum, Koblenz
- 2021 “Kunst im Bau – 90 Jahre Haus des Rundfunks”, Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin
- 2021 “Ortung XII“, Schwabacher Kunstbienniale, Im Zeichen des Goldes“, Schwabach
- 2021 “art-fgura 2021“, 9th art prize of Schwarzenberg , Schloss Schwarzenberg
- 2020 “When the Globe is Home Theorema #2”, Imago Mundi collection Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy
- 2020 “Alles III” studio im Hochhaus, Bezirksamt Lichtenberg, Amt für Weiterbildung und Kultur, Berlin
- 2020 “(Un)endliche Ressourcen? Künstlerische Positionen seit 1980”, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe
- 2020 “Berliner Zimmer | Homecoming Artists”, installations und interventions with 12 artistic positions, Schloss Achberg
- 2019 “Alles II”, studio im HOCHHAUS, Bezirksamt Lichtenberg, Amt für Weiterbildung und Kultur, Berlin
- 2019 Perron Kunstpreis für Sparte Plastik, Kunsthaus Frankenthal, Frankenthal
- 2019 “Wagnis Wagner”, Theatre Festival, “Ring des Nibelungen”, Theatre Minden with the Verein für aktuelle Kunst im Kreis Minden-Lübbecke e.V., Minden
- 2018 Positions Berlin Art Fair 2018 with SomoS Gallery
- 2018 “Drehmoment” Production Art Festival Gallery Bietigheim-Bissingen
- 2018 “BB8“ Bucharest Biennial 8, Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania
- 2017 “art-fgura 2017” 7. Art Price of Schwarzenberg Castle Schwarzenberg
- 2017 “springhouse” Hellerau – European Center for Arts Dresden
- 2017 “Bricolage – Bastler und Sampler” Palais for contemporary Art Glückstadt
- 2017 “Interim” Art Festival at Oberschwäbische Alb
- 2015 Exhibition of the Scholarship Fellows of the Hansestadt Rostock Kunstverein Rostock
- 2015 “Circus Circus“ Art in Putbus in collaboration with Susanne Burmester Gallery
- 2015 “Fantastisch!“ Vom innersten der Bilder, Gallery of the City Kiel
- 2014 “Fatal“ Project Space Artist House Bethanien Berlin
- 2014 “Blickwechsel Ahrenshoop Gestern und Heute“ Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop
- 2014 “Kunst Oberschwaben 20. Jhrdt. – 1970 bis heute“ Gallery Schrade Castle Mochental
- 2014 “Kunst Oberschwaben 20. Jhrdt. – 1970 bis heute“ Museum Villa Rot Blaubeuren
- 2014 “Open Space / Acik Depo“ Gallery Mixer Istanbul Turkey
- 2013 “Neuland! Macke, Gauguin und andere Entdecker“ Kunsthalle Emden
- 2013 “Unsere Kunst – Eure Kunst 2013“ Collection Gallery of the City Kiel
- 2013 art Karlsruhe 2013 with Susanne Burmester Gallery, with Britta Bogers und Ulrike Mundt
- 2013 “Open Space / Acik Depo“ Gallery Mixer Istanbul Turkey
- 2012 “Thank you for the smile on your face“, Contemporary Art Apartment Tesvikiye, Istanbul, Turkey
- 2012 “Phoenix Art Prize 2012 Nominated Artists, Tutzing
- 2012 “SingenKunst 2012“ Kunstmuseum Singen
Awards and Scholarships
- 2022 1st prize Swing By art award of Poolhaus-Blankenese Foundation
- 2021 Audience award of Ortung12 / Art Biennial Schwabach
- 2021 Gil Artist Residency, Iceland
- 2021 Scholarship Neustart Kultur der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien
- 2020 Artist in Residence Künstlerhaus Edenkoben
- 2017 Artist in Residence Kunstverein Bellevue-Saal Wiesbaden
- 2016 Artist in Residence of the Art Foundation ZF Friedrichshafe
- 2016 Project Scholarship Schloss Werdenberg, Switzerland
- 2015 Artist in Residence Hansestadt Rostock
- 2012 Artist in Residence Istanbul Senate of Berlin Scholarship, Turkey
- 2011 Shortlist artgrant Kunstpreis, Munich
- 2010 Shortlist Index Kunstpreis, Hamburg
- 2010 Shortlist Otto Dix Kunstpreis, Gera
- 2009 Shortlist Werkstattpreis Kunststiftung Erich Hauser, Rottweil
- 2009 Artist in Residence Künstlerhaus Lauenburg
- 2007 Artist in Residence Künstlerhäuser Worpswede
- 2007 Artist in Residence El Basilisco Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2006 Artist in Residence Kloster Cismar
- 2006 Art Award for Sculpture, Märkischer Kreis