KATJA LIEBMANN

Biography

Katja Liebmann (*1965 in Halle an der Saale) studied 1989-1991 at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, 1995 at the Art College Berlin and 1997-98 at the Royal College of Art in London (Master of Fine Arts). She first attracted attention in the mid-nineties with the series Gotham City which was bought by the Saatchi Collection in 1998. In the same year she was nominated for the Citibank Photography Prize (today the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize). Whilst studying at the Royal College of Art she taught at the State University of New York in 1997-98. Then there followed teaching posts at London College of Printing and Camberwell College of Art. In 2000 she received a scholarship from the Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg associated with an exhibition. The following year came an exhibition in the Goethe Institute in London. Since 2003 lecturer in Printmaking at the University of Oldenburg. Katja Liebmann’s photography is orientation towards early and simple processes. This widened the scope in her search for new means of expression and a different perception of reality. This concerns black and white photography but the inherent possibilities of monochrome in the working process, such as salt printing and cyanotype, reinforce the degree of abstraction, despite the painterly character. In different way she removes the boundaries of genre in her images of wide squares in London devoid of people. Here the assumed absence of people is explained by the long exposure time and increase the feeling of the indeterminate and transitory.