EXHIBITIONS
The Academy of Fine Arts Mainz’s philosophy is based on two principles: supporting its students in developing high-quality contemporary artistic approaches and proactively presenting their works to the public. As is customary for art academies, the academy organises an annual ‘Rundgang’ exhibition where all students can present their work in addition to the public examination presentations of the respective graduates. In addition, the academy runs a dedicated programme of additional exhibitions under the title ‘Neustart’, for which a dedicated curatorial post has been created, providing the basis for an ‘Art and the Public’ department that is set to be expanded in the future.
Since 2015, there has been an in-house exhibition space at the university, which initially began with a series of solo exhibitions by particularly successful alumni. Over the following years, it has developed into a popular project and exhibition space for individual, group and class shows, sometimes in cooperation with other art colleges or international guests.
With the establishment of the external ‘apotheke’ exhibition space in Große Langgasse in 2017, the art academy has created a permanent presence in the centre of the regional capital. It was conceived as a shop window gallery that could be viewed from the outside without a need for opening hours. From the very beginning, its programme was based on site-specific and, as far as possible, self-explanatory displays that invited the passing public to look in from outside, to discuss and to pause: a simple idea that was to prove especially successful during the pandemic period, as it offers optimal possibilities for presentation art even under lockdown conditions. The art academy has received a lot of attention for its exhibitions by professors such as Parastou Forouhar’s transcultural writing space, installation works by Shannon Bool and Megan Francis Sullivan, the installation of a truck tractor disassembled into its individual parts and reassembled behind the windows of the ‘apotheke’ (Christine Biehler: ‘MAN-o-MAN’), as well as numerous large-scale projects by students and, most recently, performative actions such as ‘CLOPEN’ or ‘Aktion Krautgelände’.
In 2020, across from the artistic exhibition space ‘apotheke’, an art-pedagogical performance and exhibition space of the Academy of Fine Arts Mainz was opened: the ‘Orangerei’. From its location in the city centre, it hosts public events, art education projects and teaching events and showcases the results.
The third component of the Academy of Fine Arts Mainz’s exhibition activities are group and themed exhibitions that span across classes and are organised together with professional institutions, such as the Kunsthalle Mainz in 2020/21 or Kunstvereine that operate nationwide.
Proposals for exhibitions and applications for financial support for larger exhibition projects should be sent to the curator Justus Jonas, justus.jonas@kunsthochschule-mainz.de