Werner Klotz

Werner Klotz, (* 1956 in Bonn, Germany) is an artist based in Berlin and New York, working in the fields of installation and interactive art.

Werner Klotz was born 1956 in Bonn, Germany. In 1974 he moved to West Berlin.

He worked first as a painter then as a sculptor and installation artist. His work relies on natural contexts.

In 1981 he cofounded the artist group Material&Wirkung e.V., Berlin (Material&Effect), they organized art projects in public context and early installation art till 1985.

In 1982 he began a complex body of work with live Roman Snails (Helix Pomatia L.) in conserving their trails in time, space and movement-based art works as well as performances and interventions.

In 1990 he moved to San Francisco. His work at this time included the development and fabrication of functional optical instruments and installations. These Perception Instruments are the foundation of this public art works leading to the present day.

His current artworks make use of site-specific and interactive contexts that rely on viewer participation to emphasize themes and ideas unique to each project. Using a variety of materials and strategies including light, sound, video and mechanics.

Realized projects include Le Milieu du Monde, a permanent multimedia installation onboard the Bridge deck of three new Staten Island Ferries in New York City and Anemone, an interactive kinetic installation permanently on view at the San Francisco International Airport.  Flying Sails, two kinetic light sculptures at Seattle's SeaTac airport's light rail station are activated by the air pressure of passing trains.

From 2014-18 he realized three large scale kinetic light art works for the new sculpture park Dosse Park in Wittstock, Germany.

In 2020 Werner Klotz created the 13 channel video sculpture Candelabro commemorating the Portuguese Diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes who saved more than 30,000 people from the Holocaust.

This artwork was commissioned by the New York Sousa Mendes Foundation.

In April 2021 Werner Klotz, in collaboration with artist Jim Campbell, installed the artwork Silent Stream for the Union Square Station of the Central Subway in San Francisco. Silent Streamconsists of more than 10,000 unique reflective discs of different sizes and is around one hundred and fifty meters long. This permanent artwork is open to the public as of January 2023.

Werner Klotz is the recipient of the New York City Art Commission award for excellence in Public Art and the Marler Medien Kunst Preis- Raum-Medien - Germany's most respected Media Art Award.

Beside his sculptural art works Werner Klotz created a two-dimensional body of work with printed digital files based on compositions of video imagery stills from water surfaces filmed in Californian waterfalls. Together with his daughter Nanette (* 2004 in Vancouver) he discovered and researched a section of a creek in the wilderness north of Vancouver, BC and is still working on photographic compositions of water, current, light and mineral structures directly in this stream.

• 2002New York City Art Commission Award for Excellence in Design of Public Art
• 2002Marler Medienkunst-Preis, Raum–Medien, Museum Glaskasten, Marl
• 1999Arbeitsstipendium (working grant), Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
• 1998Istanbul Stipendium, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin
• 1997Artist in residence, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, USA
• 1996Artist in residence, City Art Gallery Auckland, New Zealand
• 1994Berliner Künstlerstipendium (artist working grant), Senatsverwaltung für Kultur, Berlin

• 2019-20Candelabro - Aristides de Sousa Mendes, 13 channel Video/Audio sculpture commissioned by the Sousa Mendes Foundation, New York
• 2019Schlachtfeld( Battlefield), commissioned sculpture for Museum Dreissig Jaehriger Krieg, Wittstock, Germany
• 2014–17Mitte der Welt (Middle of the World), permanent kinetic outdoor sculpture, Sonnenfänger (Sun Catcher), light sculpture and Wolkenhaus (House of Clouds), Kunsthaus Dosse Park, Wittstock
• 2023Silent Stream, Union/Market Central Subway Station, San Francisco, with artist Jim Campbell, San Francisco Art Commission
• 2011Spiegelkabinett (House of Mirrors), Kindermuseum, Berlin
• 2006–09Deutsche Telekom AG, Bonn, Commission and Prototypes for interactive bus stops, light sculptures and out of home furniture
• 2010Flying Sails, SEATAC Airport Light Rail Station, commissioned two kinetic light sculptures, Soundtransit Public Art Program, Seattle
• 2004Anemone, San Francisco International Airport, interactive kinetic sculpture, San Francisco Art Commission, SFO airport collection
• 2002–06Le Milieu du Monde, Staten Island Ferries, Commission for  a GPS steered Light-, Video- and Audio, Installation on all three bridge decks on each ferry, Department of Culture and Department of Transportation, New York City, USA
• 2000Spiegel/Spiegel (Mirror/Mirror),  Exhibition concept and optical instrument building, Kinder- und Jugendmuseum, Munich
• 1999Scala, Charité Universitätsklinikum, Berlin, permanent Installation historical Auditorium, Medizinhistorisches Museum, Berlin
• 1999Colloquium Externum, permanent kinetic out door sculpture, Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft, (University of Business), Ludwigshafen
• 1997Doors, Brenner Pass, out door sculpture, Italian/Austrian border

• Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Landesmuseum Rheinland-Pfalz
• Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum Berlin
• Karl-Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen
• Kunstsammlung der Jenoptik, Jena
• Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medien, ZKM, Karlsruhe
• Museum-DreissigJaehriger Krieg, Wittstock, Germany
• Neuer-Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin
• Sammlung-Haupt, Berlin
• New-York City Art Commission, USA
• SFO-airport collection, San Francisco
• San-Francisco Art Commission, USA
• Sousa-Mendes Foundation, New York
• Targetti-Light Art Collection, Florence, Italy

• Lopez, Mario Jorge, Publico Magazine, Portugal, Neste Candelabro brilha o exemplo de um homem justo, 4/26/2021
• Kornhoff, Oliver and Mattern, Jutta, Das Auge ist ein seltsames Tier, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, solo catalogue, Salon Verlag 2017
• Kacunco, Slavco, Spiegel-Medium Kunst. Zur Geschichte des Spiegels im Zeitalter des Bildes
• Mirror. Medium. Art. On the history of mirror in the age of image, Wilhelm-Fink Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2010
• Kimmelmann, Michael, Risks and Reward in the Art in the Open, in New York Times, 8/19/2005
• Kacunco, Slavco, Closed Circuit Video Installations, catalogue essay, Logos Verlag, Germany, 2004
• Freitag, Michael and others, Werner Klotz-Exercise Room, solo catalogue, Galerie der Jenoptic, Jena, Germany, 2000
• Daniels, Dieter, German Media Art 1980-2000, catalogue essay, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2000
• Kunde, Harald, and others, Material & Wirkung, solo exhibition-catalogue, Kunsthaus, Dresden, Dresden, Germany, 1998
• Barzel, Amnon, Targetti Light Art Collection, catalogue essay, Florence, Italy, 1998
• Block, René and Angelika Stepken, Medienkunst aus Berlin, catalogue essay, Berlin, 1997
• Happel, Reinhold and others, Werner Klotz, solo exhibition catalogue, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 1996
• Fehr, Michael, Werner Klotz – Perception Instruments, solo catalogue, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, 1996
• Daniels, Dieter, Minima Media, catalogue essay, Medienbiennale, Leipzig, Germany, 1994
• Schultz, Bernd, René Pritikin and others, Werner Klotz, solo exhibition-catalogue, Stadtgalerie, Saarbruecken, Germany and Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 1994
• Haerdter, Michael, Werner Klotz – The Boreas Project, Kuenstlerhaus,-Bethanien, Berlin, 1992

Werner Klotz taught Installation, Social Sculpture and Public Art at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1997 - 2002

Social Sculpture at the California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA 2002 - 2003