Andreas Johnen
Warnemünde 2026

About

»In an era increasingly defined by acceleration and perpetual visual consumption, Johnen proposes another temporal condition. His works do not demand attention through spectacle but reward sustained looking. They unfold gradually, inviting viewers to inhabit the same slowness through which they were made. Perception itself becomes durational, reminding us that understanding often emerges not through immediacy, but through remaining present.«

 — Anna Fernsten Nilén 

Short Bio

Andreas Johnen (b. 1974, Aachen, Germany) is an artist whose practice spans sculpture and works on paper, exploring material, perception, repetition, and time. Working with concrete, foam, plastic, and watercolor, Johnen uses simple, repetitive processes to reveal the physical properties and forces within his materials. His works emerge through acts of compression, immersion, and accumulation, resulting in sensory objects that blur the boundaries between sculpture, image, and process. Johnen studied Fine Arts at Kunsthochschule Kassel (1998–2004) under Prof. Alf Schuler and Prof. Jürgen Meyer, continuing as a master student under Prof. Alf Schuler (2004–2005).

— Andreas Johnen lives and works in Skåne, Sweden.

Publications

2020

 — Copy available upon request.

2018

 — Copy available upon request.

At what point does a sculpture stand out from flat paintings in terms of its form and ‘objectness’? Does the viewer get the impression of an independent sculptural object without it being directly designed in its form? Those are questions that Andreas Johnen asks himself when he is not working with watercolour and paper, where the material also performs.

In each of the group of seven block-like sculptures, a tension is created between a changing internal construction and a consistent external form. Within the form, constructed with concrete formwork panels, the materials interact and interlock through expansion and compression to create a reality that appears highly plastic. By combining standard materials – in this case, concrete and coloured PU foam – the artist creates a sense of proximity with the viewer. The viewer should be able to understand the manufacturing process. That is why Johnen does not remove any traces, but rather leaves material collisions visible so that the viewer can see the manufacturing process. In this way, the artist introduces the concept of time into the space.

 — Text by BBAP

Die Ausstellung widmet sich einem faszinierenden Paradoxon: der Transformation von Materialität in eine scheinbar immaterielle Präsenz. Papier und Aquarellfarbe durchlaufen in einem ritualisierten, auf Wiederholung basierenden Prozess eine Verwandlung, die sie in eine virtuelle Realität überführt.

Große Mengen Aquarellfarbe und sorgfältig ausgeführte Techniken schaffen Arbeiten, die von chromatisch verdichteten Flächen, die das Papier durch den Schöpfungsprozess zum skulpturalen Objekt umformen, bis hin zu großformatigen, lichtabsorbierenden „Black Screens“ reichen. Diese schwarzen Flächen entfalten einen unendlichen Raum, der den Blick förmlich verschluckt und zur Reflexion einlädt.

Durch die handwerkliche Präzision wird der physische Materialaufwand nahezu unsichtbar, während ein freier Projektraum entsteht, der ästhetische und geistige Erfahrungen gleichermaßen anregt. Besucherinnen und Besucher sind eingeladen, den künstlerischen Schöpfungsprozess nachzuvollziehen und sich auf den aktiven Sehprozess einzulassen, der die Grenzen zwischen Materialität und Immaterialität verschmelzen lässt.

 — Text by Galerie Grölle

Andreas Johnen’s work is an abstract combination of thought and craftsmanship. His emphasis on repetition, time, and process places him in the tradition of conceptual minimalism, where the art object coincides with the work that produces it. All of his works are reduced and sublimated to their purely physical elements. He creates sensory sculptures from concrete and foam to make the forces of their material interaction visible. These performative processes are iterated until it no longer makes sense to continue further. In addition, the artist uses various methods to saturate paper with colour. In his current series, papers are repeatedly dipped in colour over several months. The papers, which range in colour from light grey to black, are then hung on wooden structures on the wall to dry. This technique involves compressing pigment into the paper to create an object with both colour and paper. The resulting large-scale works are referred to as „negative sculptures“ due to the minimal traces of the watercolour used being visible on the surface.

 — Text by Dorothée Nilsson Gallery

In his practice Andreas uses different methods to saturate paper with colour. He simply applies the paint until the paper can hold no more. Making large, multi-part watercolors, Johnen tapes the paper horizontally to wooden plates and pours paint onto its surface two liters at a time, repeating the procedure up to 120 times. The paper comes to life, swells and convulses under the color as they merge. Although seemingly similar, these monochromes each have a life of their own – and one not just determined by the method that brought them into being, but by the material characteristics of each colour pigment, given time and space to breathe.

 — Text by Fondation CAB