German, born in 1979
Johannes Kersting pursued a dual artistic education: first in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, where he earned his master’s degree under the supervision of Hans-Peter Reuter, and then in photography at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, studying under Elger Esser and Mischa Kuball. He lives and works in Nuremberg.
His work explores the connections between architecture, landscape, and representation. In the selection presented by the gallery, Kersting focuses primarily on contemporary villas—those sleek, silent structures that stand out against deep blue skies or face the expanse of the sea. These images seem suspended between reality and staging, between photography and painting.
The constant interplay between reality and staging lies at the heart of his approach. Kersting draws on compositional techniques characteristic of painting, cinema, and video games, which lends his villas and their horizons an almost unreal quality, somewhere between documentary and architectural fiction.
His work has been recognized with awards such as the City of Nuremberg Art Prize in 2017 and a DAAD fellowship to the United States in 2012.
