Formal Echoes
I’m interested in what a gesture leaves behind. In this work, pink pushes through layers of white, while violet marks interrupt the surface. Some traces remain visible; others almost disappear. I like that tension—and how it shifts each time I return to the painting.
165 × 190 cm
#ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #ArtCollectors #ArtCurators #ManuelaKarinKnaut
Formal Echoes
I’m interested in what a gesture leaves behind. In this work, pink pushes through layers of white, while violet marks interrupt the surface. Some traces remain visible; others almost disappear. I like that tension—and how it shifts each time I return to the painting.
165 × 190 cm
#ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #ArtCollectors #ArtCurators #ManuelaKarinKnaut
Sold, and now at home in a collection in California. A new setting for a work that began with experimentation.
ARRIVAL, 120/100/4 cm
Created during an artist residency, this painting is one of six works that opened up new possibilities in my practice. For the first time, I brought oil, acrylic, ink and concrete together on a specially prepared canvas.
Concrete changed the way I could paint. Its resistance and uneven texture shaped how colour settled, how ink travelled and where a gesture would break. The surface became an active part of the process.
Smoky blues and muted greys meet intense ultramarine, while green lines move across the composition like fragments of unfinished handwriting. Somewhere between abstraction and landscape, the painting holds traces of erosion, movement and memory.
Working with an unfamiliar material meant allowing the unexpected to stay—and letting it shape the work.
#ContemporaryPainting #MaterialExploration #AbstractPainting #ArtCollectors #ContemporaryArt
Sold, and now at home in a collection in California. A new setting for a work that began with experimentation.
ARRIVAL, 120/100/4 cm
Created during an artist residency, this painting is one of six works that opened up new possibilities in my practice. For the first time, I brought oil, acrylic, ink and concrete together on a specially prepared canvas.
Concrete changed the way I could paint. Its resistance and uneven texture shaped how colour settled, how ink travelled and where a gesture would break. The surface became an active part of the process.
Smoky blues and muted greys meet intense ultramarine, while green lines move across the composition like fragments of unfinished handwriting. Somewhere between abstraction and landscape, the painting holds traces of erosion, movement and memory.
Working with an unfamiliar material meant allowing the unexpected to stay—and letting it shape the work.
#ContemporaryPainting #MaterialExploration #AbstractPainting #ArtCollectors #ContemporaryArt
Where the Sky Falls
160 × 100 cm
What happens when the sky loses its distance?
In Where the Sky Falls, blue takes on a physical presence. Dense passages of colour meet translucent edges, while dark, directional marks interrupt the softer movement of paint. A pale opening runs through the composition, holding its expansive colour fields apart and drawing them into relation.
Without a fixed horizon, the eye moves between atmospheric depth and the material surface of the painting. Gestural traces bring that sense of distance back to the scale of the hand and the body.
The title unsettles our understanding of the sky as something distant and weightless. Here, it acquires gravity. The work holds openness and compression, beauty and unease, within the same pictorial space.
#ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #MaterialityInArt #ContemporaryArt #ManuelaKarinKnaut
Where the Sky Falls
160 × 100 cm
What happens when the sky loses its distance?
In Where the Sky Falls, blue takes on a physical presence. Dense passages of colour meet translucent edges, while dark, directional marks interrupt the softer movement of paint. A pale opening runs through the composition, holding its expansive colour fields apart and drawing them into relation.
Without a fixed horizon, the eye moves between atmospheric depth and the material surface of the painting. Gestural traces bring that sense of distance back to the scale of the hand and the body.
The title unsettles our understanding of the sky as something distant and weightless. Here, it acquires gravity. The work holds openness and compression, beauty and unease, within the same pictorial space.
#ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #MaterialityInArt #ContemporaryArt #ManuelaKarinKnaut
“Unknown routes.” — 180 × 250 cm
This large-scale painting has now arrived with its collectors, carrying a history that began long before the first brushstroke.
The reclaimed canvas played an integral role in my spatial installation at Werkstattwoche Lüben last year. Returning to it as a surface for painting allowed me to carry that experience forward, connecting two moments in my practice through the material itself.
I am drawn to materials that already hold a history. Their previous use becomes part of the work, shaping the decisions I make and the layers I add. Here, the canvas connects installation and painting, retaining its past while opening into something new.
Knowing that “Unknown routes.” has now found its place in a distinguished private collection makes me especially proud. A new chapter for a material that already has so much to tell.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialMemory #InstallationArt #PrivateCollection
“Unknown routes.” — 180 × 250 cm
This large-scale painting has now arrived with its collectors, carrying a history that began long before the first brushstroke.
The reclaimed canvas played an integral role in my spatial installation at Werkstattwoche Lüben last year. Returning to it as a surface for painting allowed me to carry that experience forward, connecting two moments in my practice through the material itself.
I am drawn to materials that already hold a history. Their previous use becomes part of the work, shaping the decisions I make and the layers I add. Here, the canvas connects installation and painting, retaining its past while opening into something new.
Knowing that “Unknown routes.” has now found its place in a distinguished private collection makes me especially proud. A new chapter for a material that already has so much to tell.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialMemory #InstallationArt #PrivateCollection
MORE LOVE LETTERS, PLEASE.
I just came across this sign, part of an installation I created last year. And I thought: yes. This is what we need.
More love letters. More love.
Less stress. Less hate.
Perhaps today you could write a love letter. Or simply send a kind message to a friend. Tell someone you’re thinking of them. Put into words something you’ve felt for a long time but never quite said.
A few heartfelt words can change the way someone’s day feels.
Life is too short to leave all that love unspoken. Let’s keep finding reasons to celebrate it—and each other.
#MoreLoveLetters #ChooseLove #ArtConnectsUs #CelebrateLife #KnautContemporary
MORE LOVE LETTERS, PLEASE.
I just came across this sign, part of an installation I created last year. And I thought: yes. This is what we need.
More love letters. More love.
Less stress. Less hate.
Perhaps today you could write a love letter. Or simply send a kind message to a friend. Tell someone you’re thinking of them. Put into words something you’ve felt for a long time but never quite said.
A few heartfelt words can change the way someone’s day feels.
Life is too short to leave all that love unspoken. Let’s keep finding reasons to celebrate it—and each other.
#MoreLoveLetters #ChooseLove #ArtConnectsUs #CelebrateLife #KnautContemporary
MATTER OF TRUST.
At 2.5 metres tall, this painting gives blue a physical presence—drawing the viewer into its layers, gestures and shifts in depth.
Commissioned for a distinguished private collection, it represents something deeply meaningful to me: the trust collectors place in my artistic vision. Being invited to create a work for their collection is a responsibility I take seriously—and a source of real pride.
My works are now held in collections across all five continents, while new collaborations continue to connect my studio with people and places around the world. These encounters feed directly into my practice, bringing together painting, travel and the intercultural exchange that has long shaped how I see and work.
Each commission begins with a conversation. The most rewarding ones open up possibilities neither side could have anticipated.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #PrivateCollection #ArtCommission #LargeScaleArt
MATTER OF TRUST.
At 2.5 metres tall, this painting gives blue a physical presence—drawing the viewer into its layers, gestures and shifts in depth.
Commissioned for a distinguished private collection, it represents something deeply meaningful to me: the trust collectors place in my artistic vision. Being invited to create a work for their collection is a responsibility I take seriously—and a source of real pride.
My works are now held in collections across all five continents, while new collaborations continue to connect my studio with people and places around the world. These encounters feed directly into my practice, bringing together painting, travel and the intercultural exchange that has long shaped how I see and work.
Each commission begins with a conversation. The most rewarding ones open up possibilities neither side could have anticipated.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #PrivateCollection #ArtCommission #LargeScaleArt