Klara Meinhardt’s work mirrors human realities from urban landscapes, the de/value of material which has become waste up to corporealities and their shaping by circulating images, social practices and technologies. Working primarily with concrete and the method of the cyanotype, she explores and discusses her materials of choice as the medium for her various themes. Abstract concrete sculptures lay bare and remain open to personal interpretation, only remotely give they away the origins of their shapes. The cyanotype belongs to Meinhardt’s preferred methods and holds astonishing freedom for her to create works with a strong blue aesthetic which evokes its history in botanical studies as well as the iconic technical blueprint. The images Meinhardt creates with this medium, mostly on canvas, are intricate compositions of layered collages where oftentimes it is impossible to disclose where one element begins and the other ends. This way hybrid embodiments occur which relate to themes ranging from biopolitical optimisation practices to gendered prototypes in classic narratives until today. Her most recent motifs are urban landscapes, their architecture as well as their flora and fauna appear in ornamental shapes on large canvas cyanotypes evoking the tradition of tapestry as a medium of representation and collective narration.
Klara Meinhardt lives and works in Leipzig. From 2006 to 2011 she studied at the Dresden University of Fine Arts. At the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, AT, she studied with Monica Bonvicini from 2013 to 2014. She completed her master‘s degree in 2015 with Joachim Blank at the Academy of Fine Arts [HGB] in Leipzig where she also worked as a teaching assistant.
Her works have been shown at the museum of fine arts (MdbK) Leipzig, the museum for Druckkunst Leipzig and most recently at the Communitas College PAKHUSgallerit in Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark.