Hans Kotter Artist Bio
Hans Kotter currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. In the years 1988-1990 he studied philosophy and photography in Cologne and New York City. Since 2004 he has been teaching art in Germany, where his studio is located.
In the past decade, he has produced photograms, projections, light paintings, video and photographic works. He is best known for his light-based compositions and his investigation of non-standard perception of color.
Kotter’s work is distinguished by his ability to ground the viewer in the larger physical scale of his installations. Distant points of light are captured on mirrors or ephemeral outdoor reflectors. He strives to capture a sense of what it is like to experience, perceive, and be part of the phenomena at work within the artwork. His pieces also employ a filmic language, focusing on close-ups of glowing light in order to evoke a sense of awe. The color palette he uses evokes both mysticism and science, creating visceral yet abstract beauty.
“Hans Kotter’s artistic practice moves between technological installations and luminous materials. The visual language of the artist is strictly connected on the light and not with the material surface. Light draws shapes, it carves images and becomes a necessary and primary tool. Kotter doesn’t use light to define shapes, he changes light in shape. His artistic research is based on the optical process as a medium to get the work and also to represent the final point of his research. The tunnel views are hypnotic work, the viewer is captured into this tunnel, made by light and led. In a luminous world where sensorial alteration and luminous perception interact together in a different way.” – Studio d’Arte Pino Casagrande
