Born 1982 in Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany
Lives and works as an artist, lecturer, and photographer in Vienna
since 2025 Lecturer in the Photography Lab at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2025 – Lecturer at the Dresden International Summer Academy for Visual Arts
2016–2025 Head of the Photography Lab at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
2023 Participation in the EU4Art program with collaborations at Art Academy of Latvia in Riga and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
2022 Co-initiator of GIF (Graphics/Content/Photography), a temporary exhibition space in the Rabenhof Vienna
2015 Freelance lecturer for the Career Service at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
2014–2015 Leonardo scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2012–2014 Master student under Prof. Lutz Dammbeck at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and research assistant to Prof. Dietmar Rübel
2013 Participation in the international artist symposium "na hranici/grenznah"
2010 Erasmus scholarship for Fine Art Studies, University of Leeds, UK
2006–2012 Fine Art Studies at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (Diploma with Distinction)
2003–2005 Training as a Designer for New Media
Info
Robert Vanis lives and works as an artist, lecturer, and commissioned photographer in Vienna.
His artistic practice combines analog and digital techniques, standing in the tradition of experimental photography. His works are exhibited internationally and are part of several public and private collections, including the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections). From 2016 to 2025, he headed the photography lab at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (HfBK) and has been teaching photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2025.
Since 2015, he has been an Image Editor at Photoresearcher for the European Society for the History of Photography. In 2022, he founded materialmatters, a company specialized in the photographic documentation of artworks. He was a co-initiator of GIF (Graphics/Content/Photography), a temporary exhibition space in the Rabenhof municipal housing complex in Vienna.
Exhibitions
2026
AKZENT – Mind The Gap, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (solo)
CD die Treppe hinabsteigen, echoraum Wien
2025
Dresden International Summer Academy for Visual Arts (Faculty Exhibition), motorenhalle, riesa efau, Dresden
back of a book, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Historic Reading Room of the University Library, FOTO WIEN (solo)
Spinnereirundgang, Alte Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig
2024
FOTOS über FOTOS, Oberüber Karger, Dresden (solo)
Das Gesicht des Wanderers, Oktogon, Kunsthalle der HfBK Dresden
Die Kubatur des Alltags, Thomas Judisch + Robert Vanis, GEH8 Dresden
2023
New Scenario - Stresstest, Online-Ausstellung
2022
Neuzugänge zeitgenössischer Kunst im Kunstfonds 2020/2021, Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen
beim Bund, Berlin
2021
WIN/WIN, HALLE 14 Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Rethinking Nature, European Month of Photography Vienna and Mois européen de la photographie Luxembourg and IMAGO Lisboa
Beruehrungsverbote, Galerie Adlergasse Dresden
AUSSTELLUNG, Alte Molkerei Radebeul
2020
reclaim the game, C.Rockefeller Center For The Contemporary Arts
2019
Die Summe seiner Teile, Kunstverein Gera
2018
Ratsam wäre es gewesen, diesen Saal nicht zu betreten (Part 2),
Gisela Elsner und die Gegenwartskunst / Koeppenhaus Greifswald/Literaturzentrum
Vorpommern
2017
Ratsam wäre es gewesen, diesen Saal nicht zu betreten (Part 1),
Gisela Elsner und die Gegenwartskunst, Literaturarchiv Sulzbach-Rosenberg
2016
Dresden International Topsellers, Messe Dresden
Körnig X Vanis, Hans Körnig Museum, Dresden (solo)
2015
Alles Auf Anfang, Fotosommer Erfurt
Neue Sinnlichkeit, ehemalige JVA Magdeburg
Na hranici/On the border, Skolska28, Prag
Rundgang, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien
2014
New Masters So Far, Kunsthaus Dresden - Städtische Galerie für Gegenwartskunst Dresden
Salonkonzert, Scholastika München (solo)
MAG (Reloaded), Galerie baer Dresden
Landscape Festival Prague, Jaroslav Fragner Gallery/ Žižkov freight railway station Prag
geradezu momentan. Ein Ausstellungsessay zum 250-jährigen Jubiläum, HfBK Dresden
Festival des gescheiterten Films, Kino Babylon, Berlin Mitte
2013
Alena Drahokoupilová, Julia Gaisbacher, Robert Vanis, Galerie Mastul, Berlin
Eine Frage des Standpunkts/politische Kunst in Theorie und Praxis, HfBK Dresden
Pluralprojekt, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin
2012
DIE KNIENDE, SPHINX DENKEN, Galerie NEXT, Dresden
Junge Kunst in Sachsen, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden
VANITAS-RÄUME, bewaldet, Kulturrathaus Dresden
2011
Frühjahrsalon, Galerie zanderkasten, Dresden
2010
Degree Show, Old Mining Building, Leeds, UK
2009
Front/Derby Houses, Wärmehalle Süd, Leipzig
Umstand, Galerie treibhaus, Dresden (solo)
2008
Hotel Vladimir, Motorenhalle, Dresden
„“Vanis stages, comments on, and transcends the discourse on reality in the history of photography and its questions of authenticity and alienation by making the only “real” factor of photography, namely its physical production basis, the actual subject - light.”“
„He repeatedly explores the areas in between: between analog and digital, between applied and free. As a member of a generation that is now globally connected, Robert Vanis uses the means of photography to search for his own cultural identity and, moreover, for artistic methods to overcome outdated models of thought.“
„His images can by no means be understood as pure documentation. Using sometimes elaborate analog or digital processes, he alienates his photographs, combining virtual and real moments into an interrogation of photographic documentation itself, and subtly playing with the viewer’s mechanisms of perception.“