Heike Kabisch
Heike Kabisch (1978, Münster, Germany) lives and works in Berlin.
She obtained a Master’s degree at the Glasgow School of Art. In 2009, she won the Bergischer Kunstpreis. She has held both professorships (2021-2022) and lectures (since 2017) at Berlin University of the Arts and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.
Informed by archival materials, family heirlooms, or objects otherwise facing extinction, Heike Kabisch presents fragmentation as a poetic tool for regeneration. Her practice unfolds across figurative sculpture, installation, drawing, and collage. To capture a sense of vulnerability, her sculptures often have wires, cracks or raw material exposed as a way to resist completion and remain open to revision, chance and time. In the smudges, impressions and careful tearing apart of materials, the viewer is given a glimpse into the labor of taming the fleeting elements of our lives. This continues with her drawings, all of which are obscured or antiqued through their titles, which follow a fictional archiving system invented by the artist. Across her mediums, Kabisch is able to explore the unfixed timelines of a beating and pulsing body of work.
Her works have been exhibited in venues such as: Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem; Nomas Foundation, Rome; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome; Kunstverein Kirschenpflücker, Köln; Künstlerhaus Dortmund; Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen; Kunstmuseum Baden Solingen; Kunstverein Leverkusen, Leverkusen; Städtische Galerie Markdorf, Kunstverein Markdorf e.V.; Wewerka-Pavillion, Münster; Cornerhouse, Manchester and Drei Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Cologne.
Collections: Nomas Foundation, Rome; Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires; Kunst aus Nordrhein-Westfalen, Aachen.
Education
2020
Mentoring program for high qualified artists and scientists at University of Fine Arts (UDK), mentor: Monica Bonvicini, Berlin
2019
Mentoring program of the German Cultural Council for women in culture and media, mentor: Nicole Hackert, Gallery Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
2006-2008
Glasgow School of Art, Master of Fine Art Programme, Glasgow
2001-2006
Kunstakademie Münster
2005
Meisterschülerin
2001-2005
Kunstakademie Münster, with Katharina Fritsch
Awards
2022
Catalogue grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
Special grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2021
Working grant from the Stiftung Kulturwerk VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
2020
Residency at BHROX bauhaus reuse, Berlin
Project Scholarship of the ‘Frauenkulturbüro NRW’
2018
Scholarship Künstlergut Prösitz
2014
International exchange scholarship, Georgia ,Frauenkulturbüro NRW
2011
Arbeitsstipendium Stiftung Kunstfonds
2009
Bergischer Kunstpreis
2009-2011
Linklaters Atelierstipendium
2006-2008
Stipendium der Scottish Award Agency for Scotland
2006-2008
Postgraduate Scholarship Cusanuswerkes
2004-07
Scholarship Cusanuswerke
Solo Exhibitions
2024
I dreamt of tearing the storm into fragments, collaboration with Zora Mann, Grisebach x ChertLüdde, Berlin
2021
Magic Garden, collaboration with the development community
Das Multihybrid, Studio//Bühne, Berlin
jamais-vu, collaboration with Katharina Kiebacher, BHR OX bauhaus reuse, Berlin
I know a type of sadness that smells of pineapple, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2020
She is looking for a positive and powerful place…, an exhibition in three parts: ChertLüdde (outdoor backyard); Drontheimer Strasse 37A, Berlin/Wedding; Ernst-Reuter-Platz, Berlin
2019
Frothing, you and I, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2014
God made me extremely creative (in all that I do), Chert, Berlin
2012
Deep down into the Ditch, Chert, Berlin
2010
Frame, Frieze, London
A House. A Light. A Hole., Chert, Berlin
2009
Do not go gentle into that good night, Projekt Hafenweg 22, Münster
2007
Snowy-White, Rosy-Red, Will You Beat Your Lover Dead?, Wewerka-Pavillion, Münster
2006
Reimann le Bègue Gallery, Düsseldorf
Group Exhibitions
2023
My Demons My Angels, ChertLüdde, Berlin
AM SEEGARTEN, Kirchmöser, Brandenburg an der Havel
2021
Lost places, curated by Andrea Peters, Kunstverein Leverkusen, Leverkusen
2020
Group Exhibition, curated by Tsao Yidi and Anna Voswinkel, Redirection Berlin
White Rabbit, Galerie Anna Klinkhammer, Düsseldorf
2019
q/ Bove Berlin, organised by Armin Hartenstein, Kupferhalle des OTS/ IDStudios, Berlin
Sculpture Club, Künstlergut Prösitz, Grimma
2018
FOAF Berlin, ChertLüdde, Berlin
Das Frauenkulturbüro zu Gast in Armenien, Armenian Art Fair, Yerevan
2016
Rundblick Reloaded, Kunstverein Kirschenpflücker, Cologne
Mirrors. On Reflection and Protection, Künstlerhaus Dortmund
Leaping over a bush to surprise a quail, Chert, Berlin
2015
Ying-Yang 2, SATTLER & PÖTZSCH, Leipzig
2014
To continue. Notes towards A Sculpture Cycle # 2 | Vision, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Rendez-vous der Freunde, Studio 2.14, Herzbergstrasse 55, Berlin
2013
Editionshow, Chert, Berlin
You’re my wife now, Infernoesque project space, Berlin
Focus, Frieze Art Fair, London
Rosebud, Christuskirsche, Cologne
Extra Large, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome
2012
AN Eignungen, curated by Ursula Schöndeling, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Langenhagen
2011
RUNDBLICK, Schöne Wahrnehmung Positionen junger Kunst – Curated by Gertrud Peters, Temporary Gallery, Cologne
Sunbeam in the Glasshouse, Ehemaliges Amerikanisches Generalkonsulat, Düsseldorf
U-Turn, presentation at ArteBa, Buenos Aires
AUSGETRÄUMT, Städtische Galerie Markdorf, Kunstverein Markdorf e.V.
MAGIC AFFAIRS, Contemporaries Meet Magic Realists, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Arnhem
That which doesn’t kill us is often made of foam, Chert, Berlin
inter deum et diabolum semper musica est, MINKEN & PALME, Berlin
2010
Drinnen & Draussen, Chert, Berlin
A man, some chickens and one corner, Paris Exchange, Carlos Cardenas Gallery, Paris; Chert, Berlin
2009
broken blossoms, with Michael Koch, curated by Julia Ritterskamp, Haufekonzept, Cologne
couples and relations, Drei Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Cologne
63. Bergische Kunstausstellung, Bergischer Kunstpreis 2009, Kunstmuseum Baden Solingen
63. Bergische Kunstausstellung, Städtische Galerie Remscheid
Summit Meeting, Young Sculpture from Switzerland and Germany, KIT – Düsseldorf
2008
Le bonheur en été, Reimann le Bègue Gallery, Düsseldorf
And there it goes, ArtNews Gallery, Berlin
Flock, Bezalel Gallery, Tel Aviv
Degree show Glasgow School of Art, Tramway, Glasgow
2007
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Birmingham; Club Row, London; Cornerhouse, Manchester
Weirding and the uncanny, Newberry Gallery, Glasgow
Lowsalt Gallery, Glasgow
Mackintosh Gallery, GSA, Glasgow
2006
Kunstsalon Berlin
Die Windmühle aus dem südlichen Teil des Jenseits, Kunstverein Mönchengladbach
2005
Förderpreisausstellung, Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössischer Kunst, Münster
MUSE HEUTE?, Inspirationsquellen aktueller Kunst, Kunsthalle Bremen
2004
Leere X Vision – coming people, Ausstellung im Stadtraum Herford/MARTa Herford
Selected group show Cusanuswerk, Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen e.V.
2003
dasgrünetelefon, Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen e.V.
Bibliography
2020
“Dread October Is contemporary art frightened of fear?” by Martin Herbert on ArtReview, October 2020, p.48
2019
“Heike Kabisch ‘Frothing, you and I’” at ChertLuedde, Berlin on Mousse Magazine
“Heike Kabisch ChertLüdde” by Martin Herbert on Artforum
2014
“La guida di i-d ad Artissima 2014”, on i-D, November 2014
“Heike Kabisch ‘Deep Down Into the Ditch’ at Chert, Berlin” on Mousse Magazine, April 2014
2012
“A Rare Breed of Sculpture”, berlin-artparasites.com
2011
“Rising Young Artists to Keep an Eye On”, edited by Olaf Salié
“Ungeschminkt”, exhibition catalogue, Kunstverein Markdorf
“Sunbeam in the Glasshouse”, exhibition catalogue, Verein 701, Ehemaliges Amerikanisches Generalkonsulat, Düsseldorf
“Schöne Wahrnehmung. Positionen Junger Kunst”, exhibition catalogue, Temporary Gallery, Cologne
2010
Frieze Art Fair Yearbook, fair catalogue
“Heike Kabisch, works 2005-2010”, published by Chert, Berlin
“Drinnen & Draussen”, exhibition catalogue, published by Chert & Motto, Berlin
2009
“Younger Than Jesus/Artist Directory: The essential handbook to the future of art”, collected by the curatorial team at the New Museum, New York
“63. Bergische Kunstausstellung”, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Baden
“Gipfeltreffen, Junge Kunst aus der Schweiz und aus Deutschland”, KIT Kunst im Tunnel, Dusseldorf
2007
“Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2007”, exhibition catalogue, London
2006
“Windmühle aus dem südlichen Teil des Jenseits”, exhibition catalogue, Kunstverein Mönchengladbach
“Satelliten mit eigener Schwerkraft”, vol. 183, Kunstforum International, Cologne