GERMANY: Exhibition Bad Rappenau - Hinter dem Schloss 1 - Kunstverein Wasserschloss - KUN:ST x 14

As a replacement for the canceled KUN:ST Prize and as an attempt to test a new format, the KUN:ST INTERNATIONAL association invited visitors to an exhibition organized by the artists themselves at the Bad Rappenau moated castle. The exhibitions in the premises of the KUNSTVEREIN WASSERSCHLOSS BAD RAPPENAU took place from August 10th to September 7th in 2025. There was also a beautiful harp concert at the opening.

The title of the event, “KUN:ST x 14,” also reflects the number of 14 artists from the association participating, including MARGIT HEUSER, WOLFGANG KEMPF, CAROLINE C. KREUTZER, VERONIKA LAUSECKER-HOFFMANN, REGINE LECHER-GROTZ, RENATE LEIDNER, INGRID LEMKE, OLGA MANILOV, KLAUS MAY, HELGE MIETHKE, LISA MARIE NAU, MARGIT SCHNORR-GUTMANN, NATALIE SIMONENKO and HUI-LING YANG.

Built in the 16th century, the Wasserschloss in Bad Rappenau is not only a historical castle landmark, but also a place of great cultural significance. Exhibitions by Günther Grass, Hermann Hesse, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser, among others, have been held here. The castle stands in the middle of a picturesque park landscape surrounded by a moat, which gives the castle a special atmosphere. The 14 artists exhibiting in the moated castle have put together a very interesting exhibition from the diversity of their own styles and works of art. From two-dimensional works in various techniques and photography to three-dimensional objects and sculptures in clay, stone, and bronze, a wide variety of contemporary art is on display. – KUN:ST International

MARGIT HEUSER

MARGIT HEUSER lives in Willingen in the Sauerland region and has been painting for 25 years. She is an expatriate Swabian and feels very much at home in her new surroundings. Her artworks are a pure pleasure to look at, as they reveal her courage to embrace change in all situations. The pictures tell stories and are deeply moving. Sometimes the message behind these artworks is enigmatic, sometimes completely clear. She finds the ideas for her paintings mainly in her surroundings—she lives in the middle of the forest—and on her travels. She calls her works of art “Moving Worlds” and they feature landscapes, traces, edible items, and travel impressions. The artist varies her paintings with colors, textures, backgrounds, and materials. Here you will find acrylic paintings, mixed media with collages, and prints. We live in a moving world. It spins incessantly and resists standing still. These movements are also reflected in her paintings. – KUN:ST International

Artist: MARGIT HEUSER

Website: https://margit-heuser.de

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/heuser-margit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Margit-Heuser-Kunst/61557552863807

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Margit.Heuser

VERONIKA LAUSECKER-HOFFMANN

Artist: VERONIKA LAUSECKER-HOFFMANN

Email: Veronika-LH@gmx.de

REGINE LECHNER-GROTZ

Born in Freiburg in 1952, the painter REGINE LECHNER-GROTZ saw works of classical modernism in exhibitions as a child. Impressed by them, she copied them in large numbers using wax crayons. Color is still the strongest incentive for her work today. Even as a child, she loved playing the recorder and piano, and today she plays in an ensemble for early music. While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg under Prof. Günther Dollhopf, she focused on drawing techniques, passed the second state examination for art education at secondary schools, and acquired a teaching qualification in art history. Until 2016, her life followed two paths: she taught part-time and worked as an artist, since 1989 in her studio in Walheim/Neckar. Beginning with landscape elements that interweave across large-scale color landscapes, the artist went on to execute series of themes related to nature and its changes. Her artistic techniques also expanded, for example, with experimental painting, the inclusion of collage, including text collage, and new image materials such as bitumen and wood stain. – KUN:ST International

Artist: REGINE LECHNER-GROTZ

Email: reginekunstinternational@web.de

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/lechner-grotz-regine

RENATE LEIDNER

Artist: RENATE LEIDNER

Website: http://www.galerieleidner.de

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renate.leidner

INGRID LEMKE

Informal painting means absolute freedom. Colors and shapes that spring from emotional moments, shaped by impulses and spontaneity, lead to abstraction. The images are an expression of the soul. Devotion, passion, and a joy of experimentation form the basis for creative potential. Painting is a way of getting in touch with the subconscious. “Informel” means absolute freedom of choice, but also the courage to change and even destroy form and color. While the first application of paint was intoxicating and playful, intensive work now begins. In response to what has been created, forms and colors are painted over again and again. Forms are created—then destroyed again—the old is erased—the new emerges. Chaos is followed by reorganisation. The finished picture is only the tip of the iceberg. Fragments from the layers underneath still shimmer through the many stages of work, seeming mysteriously familiar and arousing curiosity about traces of the past. – KUN:ST International

Artist: INGRID LEMKE

Website: http://www.kunstraum20.de

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/lemke-ingrid

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Kunstraum20-100063507424589

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kunstraum20

OLGA MANILOV

Begun intentionally, completed by chance. As a contemporary artist, OLGA MANILOV pursues an experimental and multifaceted path marked by a deep love of materials and a desire to translate emotions into tangible forms. Fascinated by creative processes since childhood, she has become increasingly captivated by painting in recent years. Her works are minimalist and often monochromatic, using natural materials such as walnut shell powder, stone powder, wood ash, and many others. These materials each have their own character and “rules,” which she respects and incorporates into her designs. In her compositions, Olga Manilov consciously plays with contrasts and harmonious elements, creating textures that invite the viewer to not only engage visually, but also to experience the surface haptically. She strives for an unfiltered art experience that offers space for reflection and personal emotions. The result is unpredictable structures and forms that challenge the eye and can leave the viewer speechless for a moment. Her works are regularly shown in art exhibitions and fairs and have received both national and international recognition. They encourage discovery, personal reflection, and an encounter with the nuances of natural materials, which, like human nature, can be just as alive and contradictory. – KUN:ST International

Artist: OLGA MANILOV

Website: https://www.olga-manilov.art

Website: https://www.artraumm.art

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/manilov-olga

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olga_manilov.art

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artraumm

KLAUS MAY

KLAUS MAY, born in Heidenheim in 1957, received traditional training as a letterpress lithographer. He supplemented his training with two part-time degree programs in advertising and marketing. He has lived in the Stuttgart area since 1978 and has worked for advertising agencies and the brand industry. In 1998, he started his own advertising agency. Initially, the business premises were in Stuttgart; via Waiblingen and Korb, he eventually ended up working in Allmersbach near Backnang. In 2014, he also registered under the name “MAY FotoGrafik” to give his expertise in image processing, photography, and manual skills a foundation and expression with the term “FotoGrafik.” He finally gave up his advertising agency in 2019. What was originally his second mainstay, “FotoGrafik,” thus became his top priority. In his “FotoGrafik” style, he brings together the manual and digital worlds. The aesthetic combination of photography, calligraphy, typography, body painting, and drawn and painted image elements offers him extraordinary opportunities to compose new visual worlds. – KUN:ST International

„Du kannst nur JETZT präsent sein – nicht gestern, nicht morgen.“ – „You can only be present NOW – not yesterday, not tomorrow.“

Zwei Tage – Two Days: „Es gibt zwei großartige Tage im Leben. Der Tag an dem Du geboren wurdest und der Tag an dem Du enteckst, wofür.“ – „There are two great days in life. The day you were born and the day you discover what you were born for.“ – William Barclay. – „Kennst du deinen zweiten Tag?“ – „Do you know your second day?“.

„Das wird im Druck des Alltags oft verdrängt. Du stirbst – LEBE!“ – „This is often suppressed by the pressures of everyday life. You will die —LIVE!

Artist: KLAUS MAY

Website: https://www.may-fotografik.de

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/may-klaus

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/klaus.may1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiaimay

HELGA MIETHKE

The artist HELGA MIETHKE was born in Pfullendorf, Baden-Württemberg, and lives in Brazil and Germany. She studied at the Master School for Fashion and Graphic Design in Hamburg, took master classes at the Museu de Arte Moderna São Paulo with Luiz Hermano and in Valdottavo (near Lucca) at Luis Camnitzer’s summer studio. She also attended a workshop at VH Munich with Silvia Götz and Andreas Kramer. She works in São Paulo and Stuttgart Leonberg. – KUN:ST International

Artist: HELGA MIETHKE

Website: https://helgamiethke.de

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/miethke-helga

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helga.miethke

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helga.miethke.1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helgamiethke

NATALIA SIMONENKO

NATALIA SIMONENKO was born in St. Petersburg and lives and works in Stuttgart. Trained at the Ilya Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, she focuses on portrait, still life, and landscape painting. She discovers her themes while traveling, visiting the circus and theater, or working with a model. The intense expressive colors of her paintings, both in the portraits and landscapes, reflect the temperament of this spirited painter and directly translate her emphatic perception of the world into color. Independent of the fashions of the art market, Natalia Simonenko embraces a realism close to the light and air painting of Impressionism. Although some of her paintings border on abstraction, the representational element always remains intact. A painting should tell a story and not just be a beautiful expanse of color. That is why it is necessary to include realistic elements in the painting, the artist emphasizes. Her goal, she says, is to create a mixture of realistic genre painting and an impressionistic painting technique and atmosphere. – KUN:ST International

Artist: NATALIA SIMONENKO

Website: http://www.natalia-simonenko.com

KUN:ST International: https://kun-st-international.de/artist/simonenko-natalia

HUI-LING YANG

The artist HUI-LING YANG was born in Taiwan in 1969 and has lived in the Palatinate region of Germany for 25 years. Her art combines the Far Eastern philosophy of her Asian roots with European creative culture, inspired and encouraged by her German teacher, Professor Eberhard Linke. Her often cubist sculptures show how the dissolution of the organic into geometric forms creates a multi-perspective that opens up a wealth of interpretative possibilities through a change of perspective. Hui Ling Yang has participated in numerous exhibitions and symposia. In her studio in Grünstadt, she offers workshops using stone and terracotta. – KUN:ST International