About
Artist Statement
Johannes Thiel (*1999, Germany) works across media, from digital graphics and renderings to sculptures and object constellations. Their visual language is shaped by mechanical systems, industrial fabrication methods and digital design processes. The objects evoke functional devices, biomechanical prototypes, prosthetic body fragments or architectural interfaces. Forms reminiscent of exoskeletons or so-called “shields” — outer shells, protective armor or modular cladding components that resemble technical limbs — appear repeatedly.
His works explore the relationship between technology and organism, not as a binary opposition but as overlapping, permeable domains. Construction impulses are translated into complex systems. The resulting technoid objects are sterile sketches of industrial logic, pseudo-technologies with an organic, almost creature-like appearance. These hybrid entities are not static but conceived as transformable systems that allow for constantly shifting constellations. Their supposed functionality ultimately leads nowhere. Movements, signals and patterns appear as fragments of a system that simulates itself. There seems to be life within them: they tremble, stretch, change shape or posture, acting like robots in standby mode — too precise to appear natural, too ambiguous to be clearly identified as machines.
Through automated manufacturing processes such as 3D printing, laser cutting or CNC milling, the digital, rule-based designs are transformed into physical objects. In their formal logic, they intersect with biomimetics, morphogenesis and digital parametric design. The resulting structures appear not built but grown, shaped by industrial protocols and algorithmic grammars made of repetition, mutation and deviation. Their surfaces are smooth, sealed and sterile, resisting any visible trace of authorship. The human fingerprint disappears in these depersonalized production processes, leaving behind bodies without origin — extracted from a world where evolution and technology converge. A new form of corporeality emerges, one that exists without the human.
The works evoke the idea of a future archaeology: organic apparatuses that oscillate between prototype and fossil, fragments of a system that cannot be fully deciphered. They approach the posthuman not as utopia or dystopia, but as a discourse already unfolding — shaped by contemporary tools and technologies. The otherness in these objects is a reflection of a present that has already become futuristic.
Johannes Thiel is currently studying Fine Arts at the UDK Berlin under Prof. Karsten Konrad, he lives and works in Berlin.

Contact
Education
2024-now: Fine Arts at the University of Arts in Berlin, Class of Karsten Konrad
2018-2024: Visual Communication at the University of the Arts in Berlin
Class for Moving Image by Anna Anders
Class for Spatial Design by Gabi Schillig
Class for Generative Art by Alberto de Campo
Exhibitions
2025: The Neoliberal Urge to Curate A Friendsgroup, ACUD, Berlin
2024: Kaugummi im Motherboard 2.0, Gr_und, Berlin
2024: tmrw, Studio20, Berlin
2024: Atelier Gardens, MOLT, Berlin
2024: There is No Such Thing as a Blue Bird, Soma, Berlin
2024: CV(2003)ZN, Container Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
2024: If not friend, why friend shaped?, Spoiler, Berlin
2024: You Can't Put the Golden Spiral on Everything, Culterim, Berlin
2024: Splinter Catalog, Untitled, Berlin
2023: Uninvolved Junctions, Culterim Gesundbrunnen, Berlin
2023: NORDWESTKUNST, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven
2022: No Sex with Robots, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin
2022: BLUR, Frappant Galerie, Hamburg
2022: Micro Fest, Burgscheidungen
2022: HYPERLINK, Culterim Gallery, Berlin
2022: Culterim Kaiserdamm, Culterim Gallery, Berlin
2022: Garden of Performance, Treptow Ateliers, Berlin
2022: "Oh, ich hab dir garnicht zugehört", Plast, Leipzig
2022: CTM Vorspiel, Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin
2021: Nautilus Secret Location, Musikbrauerei, Berlin
2021: Morgen, Domäne Dahlem, Berlin
2020: Awkward Kollektiv "Fatal", ORi, Berlin
2019: R01 Beta, Projekraum 145, Berlin
Curation
2025: The Neoliberal Urge to Curate A Friendsgroup, ACUD, Berlin
2024: If not friend, why friend shaped?, Spoiler, Berlin
2023: Uninvolved Junctions, Culterim Gesundbrunnen, Berlin
2022: BLUR, Frappant Galerie, Hamburg
2022: "Oh, ich hab dir gar nicht zugehört", Plast, Leipzig
Prizes / Funding
2022: Residency, Culterim Kaiserdamm
2023: Nomination for the NORDWESTKUNST Award
Publications
2025: OFluxo
The Neoliberal Urge to Curate a Friendsgroup2024: Fakewhale
Fakewhale in conversation with Johannes Thiel2022-2023: Kuba Paris
Uninvolved Junctions "Oh, ich hab dir gar nicht zugehört" BLUR 2022: Monopol MagazinFurther Projects
©2025 Johannes Thiel. All rights reserved.