Who: The photographer Lukas Hoffmann turns his acute formal gaze on the urban environment.
When: Hoffmann, who received his diploma with honours from ENSBA, Paris, in 2007, participated in the Programme de recherche La Seine from 2009 to 2011. In 2019 his Untitled Overgrowth was published by Spector Books, Leipzig, and Sharing Kalesija by Kodoji Press, Baden.
Where: Hoffmann obtained studio residencies in New York in 2016 and Berlin in 2011, both from the Canton of Zug. He will have two solo shows at the Kunsthaus Zug and Photoforum Pasquart in 2019. His solo show Staring at the Scenery was staged at Galerie Bertrand Grimont, Paris. His works were included in the 2014 show Supernatural at the Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris.
What: Untitled Overgrowth is an endless exploration into the cracks of our urban environment. Hoffmann’s detective work reveals beauty and desolation, and the spreads of his book feel disturbingly close to a herbarium. Life and death struggle throughout the pages, prompting us to reflect on our own place in this landscape.
Hoffmann finds his inspiration mostly in abstract painting, and his photography bends the real toward abstraction. What matters to Hoffmann is not what is shown in the picture, but rather how the whole picture starts to affect us.
Why: “In his photographs the human presence is missing. Yet the traces that man has left behind intrigue the eye of the camera: cracks, corrugations, and the overgrowth of plant life that regains ascendancy over the man-made space.” (Spector Books)
