• Jonathan Apelbaum

    25 % woman, 25 % men, 25 % lesbian, 25 % divers, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 200 x 120 x 9 cm
  • 25 % woman, 25 % men, 25 % lesbian, 25 % divers, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 200 x 120 x 9 cm
  • 25 % woman, 25 % men, 25 % lesbian, 25 % divers, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 200 x 120 x 9 cm
  • 33 % woman, 33 % men, 33 % divers, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 100 x 227,5 x 8 cm
  • The last last supper, 2, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 169 x 112 x 11 cm
  • The last last supper, 2 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 169 x 112 x 11 cm
  • Matilde & Julie, 2023
    Öl auf "Cinematic canvas", LED, 100 x 50 x 11

All my work is deeply inflfluenced by my subjective experiences, particularly my strict and gendered familial upbringing and my subsequent exploration of gender flfluidity. My work critiques the violence of masculinity, gender norms, and the shame inflflicted on our bodies as they exist in the Western world. Through a revision and appropriation of sacred religious rituals, fifiltered through a queer sensibility, I propose new ways of understanding the social sphere, in order to bring communities together. Emerging from my background as a mechanical engineer, I have developed AI sensory hardware that responds to motion and human impulses. Each painting is equipped several thousand LEDs, diffused through a translucent silk-based canvas, resulting in constantly evolving colours, images, words, and stories. This turns every installation into an immersive experience, where the public, performers and paintings react to each other. I work with performers, sound artists, fashion designers, and engineers, to bring my paintings to life and to explore the inherent traumas, dreams, visions and fragilities of the people that surround me. As they open up and simultaneously conceal their bodies from the viewer, the participants reveal tender truths about their own personal histories, along with shared experiences around sexuality and gender. I am constantly striving to sublimate humanity in its diversity and vulnerability, hoping to materialise a vision of society that transcends itself into being more honest, queer and accepting.

Biography

Since 2021 working as set designer
Since 2021 Founder of Analogdream e.V.
Since 2017 Working as a painter and photographer, Berlin
2019 - 2020 Engineer at Siemens Mobility, Berlin
2018 Project Manager “Netzwerk Europäischer Eisenbahnen” Berlin
2015-2017 Researcher, Chair of Rail Vehicles, Technical University of Berlin
2013-2014 Project Manager, Bombardier Transportation, Zürich, Switzerland
2013 Engineering Intern, Measuring & Testing, PROSE Ltd., Switzerland
2011 Chef, The Old Siege House Restaurant, Colchester, England
2018-2014 Master of Science in Vehicle Engineering
2014-2010 Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
2010-2007 Lycée Jean Baptiste Corot, Savigny sur Orge, France
2021 Watergenics Art Prize
2021 Watershed Art Residency, Berlin
2020 Monopol Art Residency, Berlin

For the past five years, I have been working with engineers to develop and refine the concept of ‘Cognitive Paintings’. The oil paintings respond to their environment and audience while retaining the physicality and ties to traditional painting.

Jonathan Apelbaum ©Photo, Jonathan Apelbaum

Ausstellungen

Messen

Exhibitions (selection)

2022
Deep & Slow, P7 Gallery, Berlin
The collective, TaunusTurm, Tishman Speyer, Frankfurt
Farewell, Treptow Atelier, Berlin
2021
Apelbaum 01, Anomalie Art Club, Berlin
Sein 01, Musikbraurei, Berlin
Sein 02, Musikbraurei, Berlin
2020
GLIMPSES, Black Rabbit, Berlin
YES OR NOW, Rodzłø Galerie, Berlin
OVERMORROW, Wilde Renate, Berlin
2019
Amour échoué, Solo exhibition, Provocateur,
Berlin Art Week 2019, Berlin
KUNST/MITTE 2019, Art fair, Magdeburg
Violence, Art Biesenthal
Analog Intimacy, Performance, Galerie Z22 Berlin
Red, Group show, Berlin, Germany
IA, Solo Pop-up exhibition, InterContinental Hotel Berlin
2018
En Lumière, Solo exhibition, Petersburg Art Space, Berlin
Portrait d’une humanité troisème partie, Solo