22 pieces, sculptures, circles and marks on the floor.
2 because there is an opposite to one, 22 because by the time I made 22 pieces it felt every place was taken. When I first started making this installation 11 years ago I was thinking about energies having the same impact but a different presence, appearance, shape.
I was also thinking about sculptures that are made for their own sake and not created for a place, site, event or enquiry.

The artist addresses the rules and narratives of contemporary sculpture in her sculptures and drawings. Referencing Postminimalism, using malleable materials such as clay, oil pastels, and resin, she maintains an intimate physical relationship with the sculptural object. Her visual language explores the relationship between the body and its environment and the inner experience of the body itself at the same time. Emerging as independent presences, her works illumine the intuitive gestures that shape them. Questioning the essence of objects and the body in space, each work alludes to relationships between being and seeing.

Esther Kläs (1981, Mainz, DE) lives and works in Barcelona, ES.

Selected solo exhibitions: As of now, Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels, BE (2024); How to imagine difference, CPM Baltimore Gallery, Baltimore, USA (2024); I will watch with you, Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, CZ (2024); Changes, Gallery Har-El, Israel, IL (2022); Several points of beginning, SpazioA, Pistoia, IT (2022); Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA (2022); The subtle interplay between the I and the me, Kolumba, Cologne, DE (2021); Riesenchance, Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, DE (2021); Maybe it can be different, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, IT (2020); Start, CCA- Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel, IL (2019); Earth, SpazioA, Pistoia, IT (2018); ola/ wave, Proyecto AMIL, Lima, PE (2017-2018); Our reality, Brodbeck Foundation, Catania, IT (2015-2016); Bet ween, Peter Blum, New York, USA (2016); Whatness, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, DE (2015); Drawing redefined, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA (2015); Girare con te, Marino Marini Museum, Florence, IT (2014); Palomar, Peter Blum, New York, USA (2014); Better energy, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York, USA (2012).

Selected group exhibitions: Glass and the ocean, Flats, Cologne, DE (2024); Panorama Monferrato, curated by Carlo Falciani, Castagnole IT (2024); We didn’t ask your permission, we just did it..., curated by Manuela Paz and Christopher Rivera di Embajada, Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) St. Louis, MO, USA (2022); Decolonizing the unconscious, Lore Deutz, Cologne, DE (2022); Afterimage, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Alessandro Rabottini, MAXXI L’Aquila, L’Aquila, IT (2022); WATOU 2021, Esther Kläs & Gustavo Gomes, Watou Arts Festival, Watou, Poperinge, BE (2021); Flow, Francesco Carone’s studio, a project by Francesco Carone and SpazioA, Pistoia, IT (2020); The subtle interplay between the I and the me, Art and Choreography, Kolumba Art museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cologne, DE (2020); Proof of life, Weserburg | Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, DE (2017); Drawing Redefined, deCordova, Lincoln, MA, USA (2015); Kolumba, Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln, Cologne, DE (2014); Manners of matter, curated by Chris Sharp, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AT (2014).