Ernst Weber

Ernst Weber (born 16 January 1965) is a German visual artist, born in Offenbach, Germany.

His work marks a fundamental reference point in the art of the 1980s and 1990s. Photomontages of his own body and face sewn over or collaged with black thread are the most well-known works of the German artist.

From 1980 to 1985 he studied with Hans Schneider, Stefanie Franz, Rudolf Grosz and David Weston at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg in Germany. In 1987 he received a DAAD scholarship for Torino in Italy.

Since 1989 she has freelanced, first in the sphere of painting and collage art, creating in 1990 his most famous series “Crime Acts” (see below). In Weber’s own words “Crime Acts“ is “an attempt to trigger states of consciousness through realization of an image in real life, i.e. make an image physically. The line, becomes a realized line, the person is part of the picture. Line and person are not two opposite things but one reality”.

In “Impossible futures” the artist portraits himself as a man on the blank page of his face; it is a history of conflict, impulsive reactions. As it cuts into the sensitive skin of his face, the thread distorts its shape but also enhances its beauty.

In his Video-Performances he wanted to make intimate processes like sexuality, sickness and violence to become subjects of the arts. From 1995 to 2000 he created the video series “Being monsters” where he observed his own body expressing panic, doubt, hope, loneliness, separation, oppression, reminiscence,

The most complex and elaborate series of works is “Images of the self” (1995-2005), where he composes photographs of the naked bodies showing the whole span of bodily change between young and old, between the fading body of age and the emerging body in puberty. His main interest is the integration of body process in his work, in order to connect body and spirit as equal parts.

From 2005 Weber returns to the art of collage, exhibiting his new works in galleries in France, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States.
In this period the photographic collages integrate painting, photo and digital treatment. The most outstanding titles are “Sphere of the soul” “Art crimes” or “Weber’s Nightmares”.