Email: leanderknust@gmail.com

Instagram: @mienardus (mostly inactive)

Leander Mienardus Knust is an amateur scientist, an accidental alchemist, a careful artist, a stringed instrument maker, a builder, a musician, and a friend.

“The performative systems I produce meditate on an ostensible nature-culture divide, the logistical histories of materials, object-hood as determined by reference to value, and the organic nature of all technological things. The instruments I build are usually banjos.”

B. 1991, Philadelphia, PA                      

Based (loosely) in Hastings on Hudson - New York, Mt. Vernon - Maine, and Amsterdam - Netherlands                                              

Education:   

2011 – 2015 Bachelor of Fine Arts, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Selected Performances:

2024 – Bang Klang - Live at Furst Wurld, Joshua Tree, California

2024 – Bang Klang - Live at Eureka Peak, Joshua Tree, California

2023 – Bang Klang - The Canoe Performance, Domaine Des Lignes, Sherbrook, Quebec

2023 – Bang Klang - After the Lighthouse, Socrates Sculpture Park & CARDEA space, New York

2023 – Bang Klang - An Arctic Requiem, Multiple Locations, Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Selected Exhibitions:  

2022 – Titebond Infinity, Woodward Studios, Brooklyn, New York

2019 – re-material wall, the 111th St. Peoples Garden, New York

2019 – Slit – Silt, Ground Level Platform, Chicago, Illinois

2018 – Like One Speaks to the Stone, Stewart & Co., Chicago, Illinois

2018 – 2019 Socrates Annual, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York

2018 – Re-Art 21: This Is Not Here, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, New York 

2018 – We Become Responsible for What We Tame, Flood Plain Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 

2017 – Hiding in Plain Sight, The Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, Illinois  

2016 – for no space, The Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, Illinois   

Public Sculpture Installations: 

2019-2021 – Re-Material Wall, The 111th St. People’s Garden, New York, New York 

2018 – Re-Material Wall, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York

2017 – This Sculpture Will Change, Salem Art Works, Salem, New York  

Awards / Residencies / Grants:

2024 – Spikehorn Ranch Residency, Joshua Tree, California

2023 – Orient Point Lighthouse Residency, Long Island, New York

2022 – The Arctic Circle Residency, Svalbard and Jan Mayen

2021 – Art Farm Residency, Grand Island, Nebraska

2019 – Gate 27 Residency, Istanbul, Turkey

2019 – The Peter S Reed Foundation Grant, Manhattan, New York

2019 – The Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, Manhattan, New York

2018 – Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship, Long Island City, New York

2017 – Amorphic Robot Works Residency, Brooklyn, New York

2017 – Salem Art Works Residency, Salem, New York

2016– 2017 – HATCH Residency, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, Illionois