Cogitationes | Artis Umbrae

Welcome to Cogitationes, thoughts from the studio of Artis Umbrae.

This is neither a blog in the conventional sense nor a diary, even though traces of both may occasionally shimmer through. It is a space for thought, a studio in words, at times a travel journal, at times a dissecting table.

This journal opens a view into the universe of Artis Umbrae — into those mental spaces from which images, series and questions emerge. At the same time, it turns the gaze of that universe back onto the world: onto art, history, society, and the contradictions of our present.

Here I write about my own perspective on art, about art-historical references and sources of inspiration, about light, body, space, and those places that at some point find their way back into my work as image. Series and individual works are introduced here, sometimes explained, sometimes deliberately left open. Social and cultural questions also have their place — though only where they touch, challenge or inspire my work.

I write neither as an art historian nor as a sociologist. Yet these reflections are not meant to float freely in abstraction; they remain anchored in history, in the work itself, and in observation.

A small warning in advance:

I have never faked sarcasm.

Irony, sarcasm, and occasionally a certain degree of cynicism are not external stylistic devices here; they are part of the original material. Anyone hoping for agreeable surfaces, softened formulations, or market-friendly artistic platitudes may well be disappointed.

For me, art rarely begins with the image alone. More often, it begins where perception collides with contradiction. If these texts occasionally reveal more about the viewer’s gaze than about the work itself, that is no accident.

If you would like to receive new essays, work series, spaces of thought, and the occasional imposition of contemporary reality directly, you are welcome to subscribe to Cogitationes.

As a rule, a newsletter is sent out once a month, featuring the latest texts, notes on new series, and selected reflections from the Artis Umbrae universe.

The newsletter is published bilingually in German and English and is intended as a shared journal for all language spaces in which Artis Umbrae is present. The individual essays on the website itself are available in all published language versions.

New texts emerge with an irregular regularity — the monthly dispatch simply ensures that nothing slips past unnoticed.

Public sharing buttons have been omitted deliberately.

Some texts and visual worlds unfold their effect more fully in quiet reading than in the rapid traffic of social media. If you wish to pass a text on, please do so intentionally — by link, message, or in personal conversation.

Thoughts may travel.

Just preferably not algorithmically.

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