Models and Protocols

Andrzej Steinbach's artistic practice encompasses the mediums of photography, sound, video, sculpture as well as installation, but he finds his focus in the field of photography, which he explores in all its facets. Cultural symbolism, history, social practice and their meaning for individuals and their formation of identity reflect the central interest of his artistic work. The portrait and the ideological ways in which it is used are always the starting point from which Steinbach makes statements about the constitution of society and its potential changes.

Specific attributions play just as an important role as appropriated or counteracted poses, which turn the sitters into figures, bearers of meaning. The exhibition in Hamburg will show Steinbach’s different series together for the first time and present a new production by the artist. In addition, the a katalog of Steinbach’s work will be published by Spector Verlag in Leipzig.

Andrzej Steinbach, born 1983 in Czarnków (Poland), lives and works in Berlin. In 2015 he graduated as a master student with Prof. Heidi Specker at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB). Among a number of prizes, he is the winner of the "Bundespreis für Kunststudierende" 2017, the "Sächsisches Landesstipendium für Meisterschüler" 2016 and the "Wüstenrot Stiftung Dokumentarfotografie Förderpreis 11". His work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York), and the Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, among others. He has exhibited at MoMA, Kunsthalle Wien, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne) and the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, among others. The exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hamburg is his first major institutional solo show.

Curated by Bettina Steinbrügge