Elmar Lause (born 1973 in Bochum, Germany) is a collector of flattened Coke cans, scrapbook stickers, multicoloured monsters made from plastic, vintage family photographs, antlers, comic strips, newspaper tear sheets and other seemingly irrelevant small details of everyday life are what he carefully retains in boxes, albums and in display cabinets. All of them form the foundation of the artist’s odd and queer world that he evokes in his works. Elmar Lause enjoys manipulating the familiar and extracting something surprising and unexpected from the habitual. He works with the set-pieces of various imageries: comic and advertisement, art and lowbrow kitsch, video games and graffiti. In his paintings and sculptures, collages and assemblages, these different elements of our reality are superimposed and in their combination yield orchestrations of a fantastic and crazy kind.

“Everything that fascinates me, all that draws my attention, is incorporated into my works“, states Lause. The son of the brilliant actor and art aficionado Hermann Lause, deceased in 2005, studied painting with Dieter Glasmacher and design with Welfhard Kraiker in Hamburg, Germany. „I am a story teller“, says the artist about himself. His painted, air-sprayed, and glued stories full of surprises, horror and wit bear witness to this.

 

selected Solo Exhibitions:

2017:
The Gronk Show IV – Die Loge des Lebens, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2016:
Position 1, LIGA01 & Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg,

2014:
The Gronk Show III – Das Gegenständliche siegt, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2013:
The Gronk Show II – Ärger im Revier, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2012:
The Gronk Show, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

2011:
Aschemonster, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

2010:
Im Schatten der Sternenfestung, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

 

selected group exhibitions:

2018:
Don´t wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Surfaces 2, Barlach Halle K, Hamburg
Knotenpunkt 18 – Intersection Tel Aviv, Cuckoo`s Nest, Tel Aviv
Love, Herr Beinlich – Contemporary Fine Art Space, Bielefeld

2017:
Don´t wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Cowboyland, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg
Sommer, Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark

2016:
Don´t wake Daddy XI, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Achterbahn, Westwerk, Hamburg
142 Jahre Kunst in Hamburg, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Zerberus, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Menschtierwir, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2015:
Don´t wake Daddy X, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Brave new World, Affenfaust Gallery, Hamburg
Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg Messe, Hamburg
Xanadu, Palais für aktuelle Kunst, Glückstadt
Knotenpunkt 15, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
60 Jahre Kunst in Hamburg, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Das eigene Ich, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Showroom Supper, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg

2014:
Don´t wake Daddy IX, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Heliumcowboy Takeover, Mercedes Me Store, Hamburg
Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg Messe, Hamburg
Knotenpunkt 14, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Big Brobot 10 Jahre – a charity groupshow, Box32 Gallery, Berlin
Urban Life, Heilkulturwerk, Hamburg
Katzen gehen immer, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Little Art Lovers, Stilwerk Gallery, Hamburg

2013:
Don´t wake Daddy VIII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Millentor Gallery, the social art and culture festival, FC. St. Pauli, Hamburg
Moorende Bauernfrühstück, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
Knotenpunkt 13, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
Protect me from what i want, Stilwerk Gallery, Hamburg
P/ART – Producers Artfair, Kolbenhof, Hamburg
Local Heroes 6, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg
Overtime, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg

2012:
Don´t wake Daddy VII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
As the Crow flies, AAK (Art Against Knives) gallery, London

2011:
Ostrale 0´11, international Art Show, Dresden
As the Crow flies – silkscreen print collevtive, Motherdrucker, Berlin
Support your local Heroes 2, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

2010:
Gewinn machen, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg
Le salon du cercle de la culture in Berlin, Circle Culture gallery, Berlin,
Raum in der Landschaft – Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Schleusengärten Galerie, Hamburg
Komm in die Gänge, Gruppenausstellung und Protestbesetzung im Hamburger Gängeviertel, Schirmherr: Daniel Richter