Gerhard Mantz received education as a painter and adopted digital media in the 1990s, being an early practitioner of software and net art. His work was characterized by a detailed elaboration of 3D-rendered digital images, which he produced both as prints and animated short films.
Website of Gerhard Mantz:
www.gerhard-mantz.de
Neu Ulm (Germany), 1950 – Berlin, 2021
Gerhard Mantz graduated from the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe in 1975 and began his career as a painter, working in an abstract and minimalist style. In 1983, he moved to Berlin and started creating wall objects built from painted wood panels. In 1991, he began designing these objects with 3D software, which led him to create both real and virtual objects, as well as prints, which he began producing in 1996. Two years later, he started to create virtual landscapes, exploring architectural forms and natural environments. In 2000 he started programming his own software, creating a series of programs that simulate his creative process and produce still and animated images. With the development of computer graphics software, over the years he created increasingly complex and realistic landscapes, inspired by the tradition of 19th century painting. Mantz passed away in Berlin on March 30th, 2021.
His work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, such as the Till Richter Museum, Goethe Institut (Montréal), Kunstverein Bamberg, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Ulmer Museum, LACDA (Los Angeles), Kunsthalle Brandts (Odense), and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/ MoMA (New York).