Niels Tofahrn, submitted artwork
Niels Tofahrn
Sculpture, Installation
Weil am Rhein/Germny
Niels Tofahrn, born in Rastatt in 1963, trained as a stone sculptor and then studied art and architectural history for several semesters. He lives and works in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Since 1991, he has been represented in numerous exhibitions in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Belgium, and in 2016 at Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe, Australia. In 1993, he received an award for his design of a Jewish memorial for the Buchenwald Memorial, and in 2013, he received the Markgräfler Art Prize. His work focuses on sculpture, installation, photography, and drawing. Niels Tofahrn`s current works are at the intersection of digital, mechanical, and manual design. He is represented by the Galerie Stahlberger.
Works
Niels Tofahrn, submitted artwork
As an artist, I absorb my surroundings in all their facets. Knowledge, experiences, and emotions flow into my decisions about media, materials, and processes and are in constant interaction. The result of this process is my art. The starting point of my current sculptures are 3D scans of a person. The coincidences, disruptions, and errors that occur in this process are not seen as flaws, but as creative impulses that open up new aesthetic and conceptual paths. The resulting data is digitally processed, printed in clay, and the still-soft raw forms produced in this way are then further shaped by hand and finally fired and glazed. The works emerge within the tension between digital, mechanical, and manual modes of production. They operate at the intersection of virtual and physical presence and address their entanglement.
