Reader in Photography Steffi Klenz, leads our MA Fine Art and MA Curatorial Practice courses at UCA Canterbury. Steffi is an internationally exhibiting artist and her photographic practice has been consistently preoccupied with the built environment, critically exploring the notion of place and spatiality.
Her work unfolds in urban places and buildings but it is not architectural photography; instead it uncovers unexpected narratives and traces of history embedded in the place. Klenz views the places of her interest as palimpsests rich in interrelated sediments of history, politics, territory and trauma.
Steffi Klenz’ work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally at the FotoMuseum Antwerp, the Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, the Phoenix Art Museum, The Fine Art Museum Luleå (Sweden), The Finish Museum of Photography, The SeaCity Museum in Southampton, The New Art Museum Walsall, Historic Dockyard Museum in Chatham, Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin and Museum Künstlerkolonie in Darmstadt (Germany) to name a few.
Her work has been reviewed in numerous magazines such as Art Monthly, Art Review, Art World China, Elephant Magazine, The Architectural Review, Photographies, History of Photography Journal to name a few.
Her practice has been discussed in Chris Townsend’s “New Art from London”, Thames & Hudson (2006), Judith Rugg’s, “Spatialities: The Geographies of Art and Architecture” by Intellect Publishing (2012), Robert Shore’s “Post-Photography: The Artist with a Camera”, by Laurence King Publishing (2014), Imogen Racz’ “Art and Home:Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday” by I.B.Tauris (2015) and Robert Shore’s “Beg, Steal and Borrow”, by Laurence King Publishing (2017).
She published her first book “Polo bound for Passaic” by Cornerhouse Publishing and Schaden Verlag in 2009 and her book “He only feels the black and white of it, Berlin Wall 14-07-1973” was published by Mörel Books in 2016.
Klenz has been commissioned to undertake the BBC East Tower Commission (2016-2017 ) in London, the Rights Of Passage Commission for the 2015 Venice Biennale, Strange Cargo Commission for the Cheriton Light Festival 2018 and are recently completed the Tunbridge Wells Cultural Quarter Commission in 2018.
She is Member of the Cultural Innovation Forum in the South East (UK), Member of the REF Working Group at UCA, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been nominated to be an international mentor at The School of Fine Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Austria.
University of Bolton Fine Art 