Alexander Laner

After training as a stonemason, Alexander Laner (born 1974 in Munich) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich with Olaf Metzel from 1997 to 2004. For his two-dimensional works, sculptures, installations and temporary art projects in public spaces, Laner uses used and found materials, objects and machines such as cables, light bulbs, skateboards, records, through to bicycles, car bodies and washing machines. The resulting artworks are characterised by a tension between dynamism, power and poetry.

Freude am Fahren (large) is part of a series in which the artist drives over surfaces with a self-built apparatus, similar to a motorised wheelbarrow, leaving traces: the abrasion of tyres. In a balance between chance and control, Laner directs the creation of these lines and stripes, which combine to form powerful, dynamic structures, borne of a calculated randomness. The white, almost illegible lettering “Love is all you need” in the midst of this web of lines gives the work a romantic message to the modern world which is nevertheless steeped in old convictions. Here the artist tells a story of experimentation and exploration, of moving forward and progressing, and he makes clear what really counts in the process: love.

Alexander Laner has received important awards such as the Villa Romana Art Prize and the Award for Fine Arts of the City of Munich.