Jo Niemeyer

* 1946 in Alf, Germany
He lives and works in Germany, France and Finland

How do we experience space, time, distance? And are there principles of form, structure and proportion, observed in nature, which then can be transferred to the surface of an artwork? This interweaving of the bipoles nature/art, is, in Niemeyers words, “not only the basis of my experience but also my central theme.” The minimal compositions of his 3-dimensional objects and paintings are composed of basic geometric structures: lines, squares, rectangles, held in red, black, yellow, blue or white. The pictorial elements, each easily readable in itself, are related to each other in the golden section, which is examined as a surface phenomenon in Niemeyer’s works. “Every division of the image surface into elements is made according to the classical method, and every variation of the image theme builds on this very principle. The play with the system takes on an extremely large number of dimensions, for each image surface has its own spatial and colour effect.” (Markku Valkonen)

The concrete artist Jo Niemeyer studied visual design and architecture in Helsinki. In 1989, he began to conceptualize the land art project “20 Steps around the world”, which was realized in Lapland in the mid-1990s. For the Swiss company Belux, he designed the multiple awarded table lamp “Tubo”. Jo Niemeyer’s works can be found in public and private collections, as well as museums, including Louisiana Museum Humlebaek, Pinakothek der Moderne Munich, Bauhaus Archiv Berlin, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.