HANNAH IMHOFF, CONCEPTUAL ARTIST AND CURATOR
SHORT BIO
Hannah Imhoff (*1997) is a conceptual artist who sometimes curates. Based in London and Vienna, her work is included in the collection of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. She holds a bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and studied sculpture at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria. Afterwards, she went on to pursue her Master's degree in Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Arts in London, UK. She is one sixth of the London-based collective Successful Artist and part of the Salzburg-based fluid feminist network EXTRA stark.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Activism, social science or conceptual art - whatever I did so far, it was always about the same thing: questioning human-made conditions we find ourselves in within society. While doing so, simplicity serves as the guiding principle of my ideas and aesthetics.
In my practise the concept determines the form and chooses the media. I take pre-exiting concepts from our social reality like cultural conditions, legal documents, societal norms, statistical descriptions or found footage. In order to find their suitable forms I am working cross-media, whereby I often end up doing installations, performative or documentary artworks. Here I am interested in a spatial fusion of art and society: I let my sculptures be formed by the visitors, meet through my performance with passersby, merge my cut-outs with the public space, nestle my graphs around house walls and draw my lines across streets. I like these artworks to be either small, easily packable or impermanent – as I am not very interested in resource-guzzling art that occupies storage spaces beyond my death.
What I am very interested in, is developing ideas. Normally, I circle around a theme till I get sudden access to the topic. This happens often while running or biking when my mind just starts bringing up ideas and concepts, commonly inspired by encounters with people or art that resonate with me. This leads then to this wonderful state of reaching constantly for pen and paper, to excited about the ideas my mind cannot stop creating.
My work is a dialog with society and art is my current language. I choose this language because I believe, that art has the ability to shape people’s fundamental perception: it touches us on another level, which is deeper than understanding something just with our mind. And that is what I am aiming for, especially by addressing human-made conditions we find ourselves in and that we can change.
Chelsea College, University of the Arts London, UK
Mozarteum University Salzburg, AUT
University Salzburg, AUT & University Bayreuth, DE
Rudolf-Steiner Schule Gröbenzell, DE
Millbank Tower, London, UK: initiation, organisation & curation of a site-specific show, bringing early and more advanced career artists together
Slash Arts Boatgallery, London, UK: initiation, organisation & curation of interdisciplinary art show between London & Vienna
Wish You Were Here, 2023
Margate Beach, Margate, UK: initiation & coordination of an offsite show of happenings with 17 artists
Parallel Festival, 2022-23
Hong Kong Baptist University, HK & Chelsea College, London, UK: organisation, social media & creating three collaborative artworks with Hong Kong & Chelsea art students
Muncher Schulerburo, Munich, DE: organising, planning & coordination the workshops of the annual three day long congress for 200 students
COLLECTIVES
A collective of the London-based artists (Richard Cook, Monika Drabot, Yuying Huang, Hannah Imhoff, Xinghao Liang & Nina Oltarzewska), that develops collaboratively mostly performative & participative work together
A feminist network of 18 fluctuating members of Austrian & German artists, that help each other out & exhibit together
(N)acktzeichner*innen, since 2022
A collective of 9 female artists that play around drawing and modelling to dissolve hierarchies of nude drawing
C-GROUP
SHOWS
Wandering Exhibition, by Arts of Change, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, Kunstuniversität Linz, Akademie der Bildende Künste Wien, Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien, Austria, 2023-24
ACHTUNG, FERTIG, LOS, by the feminist network EXTRA stark, Stadtgalerie Zwergelgartenpavillon, Salzburg, 2023
Dress Rehearsal, Chelsea College, London, 2023
Testing, Testing, Testing, 123, Cookhouse Gallery, London, 2023
XYZ, Cookhouse Gallery, London, 2022
Departure Lounge, Chelsea College (UAL), London, 2022
CURATED
GROUP SHOWS
Systems of Support, curated by Mirela Baciak, Salzburg Kunstverein, Salzburg, 2023-24
WHAT IS STEADY ANYWAY?, curated by Julika Bosch & Nele Kaczmarek, Collection Philara, Dusseldorf, 2023
Mother Tongue, curated by Naj Shirazi, Millbank Tower London, 2023
PLOT, inspired by the book Plot by Claudia Rankine, curated by Richard Ducker & Elizabeth Peebles, Chelsea Space, London, UK
infinite tremors of relations, curated by Avery Gales & Polly Gladstone, Cookhouse Gallery, London, 2023
Inbetween, curated by Alex Bal, Haoyue Chen, Kaixin Huang, Aishwarya Korwar, Qingrui Lin & Eva Rondo, Landing Space, London, 2023
Collecting Policy. New Works in the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, curated by Christina Penetsdorfer & Thorsten Sadowsky, Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg, Salzburg 2022
Artprize 2021, curated by Martina Phon & Stefan Heizinger, Gallery DAS ZIMMER, Salzburg, 2021
SOLO SHOWS
Behind This Door, Gallery DAS ZIMMER, Salzburg, 2022
Visibility, Gallery KunstWerk, Salzburg, 2022
AWARDS
Arts of Change, funding & mentoring programs of interdisciplinary art projects on sustainability & socio-ecological transformation, 2023-24
ADEMA, University des Illes Balears, nomination & funding of the participation in the II Performance Art Week in Mallorca, 2023
Study Abroad Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, 2022-23
UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship, 2022
Artistic Working Grant, by the Volksbank, 2021
Artistic Working Grant, Institute for Equality and Gender Studies at the Universität Mozarteum, 2021
Study Abroad Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, 2020-20
München dankt! Award for the voluntary, civic and honorary involvement in the student council, 2019
Scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, 2018-23
Book Prize, ZIS Stiftung für Studienreisen, for a self-organized four-week research trip to the Finnish school system, 2018
Press Award JUNIOR, students experience business, spokeswoman of the student company, 2014