Manuela Karin Knaut

Navigating into the unknown (Abstract painting)

2023

The layered, painterly works of Braunschweig, Germany-based abstract painter Manuela Karin Knaut hover between the derelict and the precious. Their uncertain stillness—a frozen snapshot of tenuous balance in a chaotic world—evokes something both ancient and fleeting: a celebration of unexpected relationships between textures, gestures, colours and lines. Knaut earned her Master of Arts in Fine Art degree at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her BA in Art Education from Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. She studied fine art and painting at Braunschweig School of Fine Arts. She is a member of several international artist organizations, including the Bund Bildender Künstler (German Association of Visual Artists); the Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques; and The Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA). Knaut has exhibited extensively in Germany, as well as in South Africa, and her work has been featured in several contemporary art fairs, including The Other Art Fair in London. The intuitive, layered approach that Knaut brings to her paintings echoes her own desire to break out of her comfort zone, mentally and physically. Her search for a polyrhythmic visual language, in which a multitude of colours, textures and materials intermingle, is informed by her extensive world travels. She is as inspired by the stories of the people she meets as she is by what she calls the “charming inperfections” of the places she visits: the dilapidated surfaces of urban walls; or the colourful abundance and chaotic energy of street life. Just as she seeks out confrontations with the untamed aspects of her existence outside of the studio, Knaut strives to bring that same sense of adventure and uncertainty into each of her paintings. The tension that arises between that duality, between what is chosen, and what is unexpected, is at the heart of the work.