Jan Kuck is a German conceptual artist working at the intersection of language, light and public space. Across neon, laser, fibre-optic and spatial installations, he uses text, object and architectural context to make the tragicomic structures of the present visible with precision and restraint. His works turn sentences into objects, light into arguments and public sites into fields of heightened perception.
After studying law, he completed a Magister Artium in Philosophy and History. This academic background informs the conceptual discipline of his practice. For Kuck, art begins where language reaches its limits and other forms are needed to ask questions that are fundamental, unsettling and at times unexpectedly humorous. In his work, light is less a matter of illumination than an autonomous medium of perception — immediate, emotional and legible without translation.
Since his first gallery exhibition in 2012, his practice has expanded from the white cube to city façades, public monuments and international institutions. Humour in his work is not a retreat from seriousness; it sharpens it by removing pathos. Language is set spatially, and light becomes a means of conceptual and atmospheric concentration.
Internationally, Kuck’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Europe, Turkey and the United States. Galleries include Anna Laudel Contemporary, Istanbul. Art-fair participations include SOFA Chicago, ART COLOGNE, Contemporary Istanbul and HIGHLIGHTS Munich. Further presentations have taken place in Genoa, Copenhagen, Vienna, Venice and Budapest.
In 2019, Kuck spoke at TEDx Munich. His work has been reviewed and documented in Süddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ, WELTKUNST, Artribune, artnet, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Jüdische Allgemeine.
Works are held in public and institutional collections including MAIIIM — Art Museum of the Third Millennium, Genoa; the Collection of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg; and the Papko Art Collection, Istanbul, as well as in private collections in Germany, Europe, New York and Istanbul.
Jan Kuck is represented by Bernheimer Contemporary, Berlin – Munich.
www.bernheimercontemporary.art · www.jankuck.com
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & TALKS
I. PRESENT & FORTHCOMING
2026
ALWAYS REACH BEYOND THE LIGHT — solo exhibition, galerie burster, Berlin
2026
WHAT IF WE ARE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTIONS? – NEVER AGAIN — public
intervention in front of the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, at the invitation of Dr
Anton Biebl, Director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
II. IN DEVELOPMENT
2026/2027
A LITTLE PEACE OF ART — interactive and partly immersive installation, Friedensengel, Munich
***
III. PAST
2026
VA BENE SENZA RIDERE — solo exhibition, MAIIIM — Art Museum of the Third Millennium, Genoa.
2025
PINK, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich
2024
NEVER AGAIN …IS NOW! — intervention on the facade of the KOENIGmuseum, Landshut
2023
NEVER AGAIN — Munich Town Hall / New City Hall, Marienplatz, Munich
2023
ARACHNE — Copenhagen Light Festival
2022
TIME MATTERS — Federal President’s Citizens’ Festival, Schloss Bellevue, Berlin
2021
DesignWalk.Art — public-space presentations in Munich, Augsburg, Passau and Nuremberg
2020
THE BURNING RIVER — large-scale laser intervention spanning more than 200 metres
of Munich’s Isar
2020
DESIGN! or NO SIGN? — Siegestor Munich / official Artwork for the Munich Design Week (MCBW)
2019
We are living in the future of yesterday, a call for more disrespect towards old heroes – TEDx Talk, Kammerspiele Munich
2019
TIME TO TALK NOW — solo exhibition, Kunsthalle München
2016
ARACHNE — Arsenale Docks, Collateral Project for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale
2012
PACKET-SOUP — SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin.