3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

for their own interpretation. He thus invites us to study his
sculptures intensively, not to say he challenges us to do so.
However, the character of his pieces remains completely open.
In his studio, he stacks them up on shelves, the pieces relate
to each other, they become a unit, an installation in space.
Sometimes though he piles them up beside the road so that
they can hardly be told apart from everyday refuse. Here too
Frank Louis was born in Hanover in 1966. after qualifying for university and doing
his community service (in lieu of military service), he studied at the niederrhein univerity
of applied Sciences in krefeld under Prof. Crumbiegel, Prof. albrecht and Prof.
Orlopp. From 1996-2001, he studied at the Braunschweig university of art under
Prof. neumann and Prof. Prager. Since 2006, he has been Professor in the Ceramics
Department at Linz university of art and Design. In 1995, he was awarded the second
prize at the Concorso Internationale della Ceramica d’arte in Faenza as well as the talent
award for ceramic artists under 30 in the Westerwald Prize Competition. In 1996,
he was awarded the 1st Prize in the Richard Bampi competition at the kunsthalle in
Mannheim. In 2000, the arts Prize of the Giffhorn administrative District followed,
and in 2004, the Westerwald Prize for european Ceramics as well as the corresponding
prize in the category of architectural, sculptural and conceptual ceramics at the
XIXème Biennale Internationale de la Céramique Contemporaine in Vallauris, France.
He received the most recent prize at the 5th international Ceramics Biennale at kapfenberg
in austria. Since 2000, Frank Louis has had solo exhibitions at the Hetjens-
Museum, Düsseldorf, at the kunstverein Wunstorf, the Museum Baden in Solingen,
and in 2011 at the ICOn Galerie in Linz, austria.
FrAnk LouiS
Tel. +43 (0) 76784 - 7898340
frank.louis@ufg.ac.at
http://www.franklouis.de/
http://www.ufg.ac.at/?id=1425
FRank LOuIS
they are installations in space,
in a free space, they change
the surrounding space and
make us experience it in a new
way. They are spatial installations
in the best sense. Regrettably,
they are often only
preserved for posterity via the
medium of photography, but
as Martin Hochleitner has said,
“They convey the multiple
meta levels on which Frank
Louis conceives and implements
his three-dimensional
ideas."
Cultural philosopher Uwe
Mämpel from Bremen recently
wrote something (cf. NC 1/12),
that takes up the idea again in
2012 that Frank Louis formulated
in 1999: “Today, ceramics
as a medium only plays a
subordinate role in modern
art. The reasons for this have
partly to do with the technical
problems of making ceramics,
i.e. they are problems of craft
skills, but also with a complete
reorientation of the concept of
what art is. But art’s freedom to
experiment in a modern democratic
society is more important than any notion of truth to materials.
I expect technical perfection of good craft, not from art."
With this statement, Mämpel has hit upon one of the principles
of Dieter Crumbiegel's teaching, thus closing the circle.
Antje Soléau lives in Cologne and is a freelance journalist for German
and international art and crafts magazines.
May / June 2012 NEW CERAMICS 31
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