Biography

Johanna Weis trained and worked – in Switzerland, France and Nicaragua – first in medical research, then – in France, the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland – as an object conservator specialized in gilded frames and polychrome wood. Since 2010, she has been active as an artist, and currently lives and works in Berlin. Her experimental approach to art-making involves the recourse to chance, the agency of materials, and bilateral symmetry. Her work has been presented in group and personal exhibitions in Switzerland and Germany. She is currently collaborating on a group exhibition on the theme “paper and sound” and publishing an artist’s book based on paper cutting.

Project Summary

I love ornament, the way it plays with forms, courts and evades meaning, and proliferates. Spending time in Florence and at I Tatti promises a rich diet of Renaissance and neo-Renaissance ornament in various guises and techniques, which I wish to look at, interpret and transform, again in various guises and techniques. The face (the mask), the body and the grotesque might be points of focus, because of my interest in symmetry and metamorphosis. I also plan to take inspiration from nature and to compare the morphology of plants, as “natural ornament,” with the artificiality of garden design.