C h r i s t i a n
L e i t n a
Surveying Christian Leitna’s body of work to date, one encounters sculptures, installations, as well as works that lie somewhere in-between. Most dominant, though, is Leitna’s printmaking with all its various techniques and experimentation that this medium has to offer. Rather than adhering to one method of printing, Leitna combines, for example, transfer printing with silkscreen printing on photographic paper. Leitna, thereby, achieves multiple layers that variously conceal and reveal, forming an apt and complex language for his subject matters, which deal with the overlapping, repetitive and to a certain extent, excessive visual information we experience via the Internet, television or newspapers everyday.
Whilst one could consciously choose to escape this barrage of ocular interconnectivity, the majority of us, nevertheless, choose to encounter this collectively on a daily basis. Leitna culls and collates such images, mostly from newspapers, filters and transforms these through the various printing processes. At the same time, Leitna entwines this publically available documentation with his personal photographic archive, juxtaposing or rather fusing the private and the public. And so we believe to recognize familiar sights we might find in the daily papers, such as, police in riot gear, a burning car or a simple street scene. Yet none of them are crisp images, or clear references we could match up to a particular event.
Rather they hover like ghosts on the paper, overlaid with the shadow of an ordinary person not in uniform or part of a tree.
It is rather like literally seeing how we remember, which tends to be fleetingly, often faded and disconnected.
Despite Leitna’s predominant use of the formal black and white related to a document or newspaper, the individual, figurative elements of each layer are more suggestions than solid outlines or a source of reference; by partly obscuring each other their concrete shapes begin to dissolve into abstract, even painterly surfaces.
Julienne Lorz, April 2012
Christian Leitna, born 1977 in Munich, lives and works in Munich.
In 2001-2008 he studied contemporary sculpture under Olaf Metzel at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
2005 he studied under Dean Hughes and Keith Brown at the Faculty for Art and Design, Manchester, U.K.
solo exhibitions
2018 "No Home - No Castle" Livingstudio, City Gallery, Klagenfurt, Austria
"Needles & Razors" Charlie, Munich, Germany
2017 "Essen ist fertig" Ruffinihaus, Munich, Germany
2016 "Void" arToxin Gallery, Munich, Germany
2015 "Neue Arbeiten" Studio, Munich, Germany
2014 "Falscher Frühling" arToxin Gallery, Munich, Germany
2012 "Colourblind" Färberei, Munich, Germany
2011 "Deutsches Buffet" Firstlines Gallery, Munich, Germany
"Gesicherter Prolaps“ Kirsch & Co, Munich, Germany
2007 "Die Nächste rechts, nach 300 Meter links“ Galerie Hobbyshop, Munich, Germany
group exhibitions (selection)
2018 "Shopping Mall" Castle Gallery, Isny, Germany
"Quo Vadis" Alpe Adria Gallery, Klagenfurt, Austria
"Klaus von Gaffron gegen den Rest der Welt" KBB, Munich, Germany
2017 “Alive Inside” KBB, Munich, Germany
“Blickfang”, Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Germany
“Von Cranach bis Charlie Hebdo” Kunstverein Coburg.
“Shopping Mall” Galerie der Künstler, Munich / Verpackerei GÖ, Görisried / Künstlerhaus Marktoberdorf, Germany
2016 "Nothing Special" Gallery Gustav-Siegle-Haus, Stuttgart
2015 "Summereditions" Reflektor M, Munich, Germany
"Tage des elektronischen Bewegtbildes", Garage, Munich, Germany
"Turnout" Kösk, Munich, Germany
2014 "Jahresausstellung" arToxin Gallery, Munich, Germany
"Lichtstromfestival" Klenzepark, Ingolstadt, Germany
2013 "Power of Glass" Gustav van Treeck GmbH, Munich, Germany
"Cluster" Galerie der Künstler, Munich, Germany
"München zeichnet" Galerie der Künstler, Munich, Germany
"Leitna + Thiede" Firstlines Gallery, Munich, Germany
2012 "The Main Line" Firstlines Gallery, Munich, Germany
"Floor" Firstlines Gallery, Munich, Germany
"Licht" promoting award exhibition of Darmstädter Sezession, Darmstadt, Germany
2011 "Junge Kunst" promoting prize exhibition of Götz-Stiftung, Markt Oberndorf, Germany
"fazebook network" Weltraum, Munich, Germany
2010 "Heiter bis wolkig” Galerie der Künstler, Munich, Germany
2009 "Switch on” Altes Rathaus, Gräfelfing, Germany
"Bassart” Forum der Technik, Munich, Germany
2008 "Neues Wetter“ Hall 14 Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
"New Talents” Galerie Noah/Kunstmuseum Walter, Augsburg, Germany
"Nothing but printing” Sdw, Berlin, Germany
2007 "Urban art and media organisation“ Kunstarkaden, Munich, Germany
2006 "Im November war noch nie August“ Akademiegalerie, Munich, Germany
"Fischer Fritz“ Katholische Akademie, Munich, Germany
"Hi society“ Alte Post, Munich, Germany
2005 "Montags“ Pudelkollektion, Hamburg, Germany
"Me,myself and I“ Galerie Hobbyshop, Munich-Amsterdam-Frankfurt
"Ten“ Readingroom, London, U.K.
"Dive“ Victorian bath, Manchester U.K.
awards/grants/scholarships/promotions
2018 grant for photography and new media, Klagenfurt, Austria
2017 studio promotion of BBK, Munich, Germany
2014 catalogue promotion by Lfa Förderbank, Munich, Germany
2013 project promotion by BSCW-Stiftung, Munich, Germany
2012 studio promotion by the city of Munich, Germany
2011 project promotion by Lfa Förderbank, Munich, Germany
2009 "Grüner Wanninger” award, Bavaria
2007 Lfa sponsorship award for young artists, Bavaria
2006 1. place for Architecural Art, Freising City Library, Germany
2002 "Tassilo" award Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany