Elmar Lause

About Elmar Lause

The artistic world of Elmar Lause is full of unanticipated faces and unforeseen collisions. In his work, objects transform into bizarre new personalities that startle us with their ambiguous physiognomy. Assembled from objects that he finds, collects, discovers at flea markets as well as his own painting and drawing, the artist creates works that fascinate and captivate us with their appearance. Often it is only at second glance that the viewer recognizes the individual parts that comprise the seemingly coherent design of the work, although individually they would normally not be associated with each other at all.

On the cusp between humor and fight, a sci-fi aesthetic, high art and lowbrow, the objects awaken here to a new life. Instead of creating something entirely new, Elmar Lause playfully demonstrates that there is a multitude of new perspectives to be found in what already exists, and various alternative histories are hidden within the seemingly familiar. In his objects, assemblages, collages, and paintings, as well as murals in public space, Lause reveals tipping points between a sense of recognition and absurd perplexity.

Elmar Lause, born in Bochum in 1973, studied painting under Dieter Glasmacher and design under Welfhard Kraiker at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), where he graduated with a degree in Communication Design in 2004. Since then his work has been shown in numerous exhibits in Germany and abroad, including at the Affenfaust Galerie in Hamburg, Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg, Helium Cowboy Artspace in Hamburg, the Circle Culture Gallery in Berlin, Ostrale in Dresden, the AAK Gallery in London, the Kunstverein Hamburg, and Galerie Wolfsen in Aalborg, Denmark.