Christiane Löhr, a German artist (b. Wiesbaden, 1965), studied Egyptology, Classical Archaeology, and History at the University of Bonn. She also studied art at the University of Mainz before enrolling at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, where she graduated in 1996 under the mentorship of artist Jannis Kounellis, a prominent figure of Arte Povera. Influences from Joseph Beuys and the Naturkunst movement also play a role in her artistic development, though her work evolves in a wholly original direction. Löhr creates sculptures and installations, often site-specific or site-related, using exclusively natural materials like seeds, flowers, stems, leaves, and horsehair, woven together without adhesives or chemicals. Her meticulously crafted works emerge from a deep, almost symbiotic connection with the natural element, presenting as delicate and refined microcosms—poetic architectures that enchantingly replicate the symmetrical morphologies of the vegetal world.
Among her numerous exhibitions are: Wie die Dinge den Raum berühren at the Kunstmuseum Bonn (2003); Dividere il vuoto at Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Varese (2010); and Dilatare lo spazio at Galleria Oredaria in Rome (2010-11). These significant titles refer to a fundamental characteristic of Löhr’s works, which are highly permeable to space while also being strongly structuring, capable of silently dialoguing with the void and simply conveying a profound sense of calm and ancestral harmony.
During her exhibition at Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza in Varese, she met the Panza family, who fell in love with her work and became major collectors. First revealed in 2001 at the 49th Venice Biennale, curated by the late Swiss artist Harald Szeeman, Christiane Löhr has had an international career in contemporary art for over two decades. She has developed a radical sculpture practice through solo and group exhibitions in Japan, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and more.
In 2020, with the publication of her monograph by Hatje-Cantz, the renowned Italian Arte Povera specialist Germano Celant dedicated one of his final texts to her (Celant, a curator at the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim, and the Centre Pompidou, passed away in April 2020). Christiane Löhr’s recognition is attributed to her singular and resolutely independent approach, which was recently welcomed for the first time in Berlin during the Ordnung der Wildnis exhibition at Haus am Waldsee in 2021.
Christiane Löhr currently lives and works between Cologne (Germany), where she has a studio in an industrial area conducive to her work, and Prato (Italy), where she gathers materials for her sculptures, often during walks or bike rides. In Chaumont-sur-Loire, she joins masters of Arte Povera like Jannis Kounellis, whose artistic commission is still visible in the castle kitchens, and Giuseppe Penone, whose permanent sculpture Trattenere 8 anni di crescita interacts with the Historical Park.
“Christiane Löhr’s world is animated by an airy and luminous vitality. It reveals the vital and aesthetic power of all that is fragile and ephemeral in nature, dependent on the fluidity of the wind, and suggests a plastic force that is not aggressive but light and sensitive. Her ensembles, constructed with grass stems and ivy shoots, horsehair, and dog hair, emphasize their dependence on any shock that could disrupt their calm and balance. They are dome- or pyramid-shaped, cloud-like or cushion-like images, transmitting a vaporous naturalness that contrasts with the physical and environmental gravity of many contemporary sculptures. The German artist aspires to affirm the fluffy, evanescent, elastic, and light character of her work. It is a discourse on the sensitive and euphoric quality of the vibrant vegetal and animal world and its alteration, entrusted to the delicacy and tenderness of attention. Delicate and fine sculptures shape floating and foamy forms, capable of shining and resonating with a captivating and tactile presence, regardless of the context. The appearance of these volumes and images seduces with their softness to the touch and the blossoming of materials. Something tender yet imposing in the material, leaning toward theatricality, leads to this incredible expression: a revitalization of the way of perceiving and thinking about sculpture itself.” —Germano Celant

Christiane Löhr’s miniature installations will interact with the spaces of the Porcupine Gallery, the Service Room, and the King’s Tower. They are an homage to the fragility, preciousness, and grace of the forms that nature abundantly offers to our often inattentive or indifferent eyes. Her creations are infinitely delicate. In search of all the elements nature can offer, be it twigs, stamens, or pistils, she gathers, arranges, and conceives spider-like architectures of extraordinary grace. Like an alchemist of vegetal material, she transforms mundane elements into precious jewels that are generally unnoticed by the eye.
“Referring to the detail of one of his paintings, Arshile Gorky likens it to softness, something so soft it borders on death. What strikes about Christiane Löhr’s work is its softness, a softness akin to vigor; indeed, it is so vigorous that it approaches a black square. This is achieved with ‘landscapes’ found in fields or woods, which have a single color in winter, changing appearance in summer. Christiane leaves these series of landscapes on solid-colored walls, in corners, or on the ceiling. Thus, space becomes participatory, a receptacle and a dimension for this staging of vigor and love.” —Jannis Kounellis. Udine, Friday, January 17, 1997.
Learning to see, identifying the secret and multiple architectures that govern all vegetal forms, and creating, weaving with this ephemeral and fragile material new wonders: this is the noble and passionate task that Christiane Löhr has set for herself.