Leon Billerbeck (*1995 in Hamburg, Germany) is an artist currently living and working in Marseille, France. He graduated from the class of photography in the field of contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig, Germany in 2024. In 2019, Billerbeck completed the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Art at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, with the interterdisciplinary work „Ataxia/Ataraxia“, which was awarded the prestigious emerging artist award „Gute Aussichten 20/21“ and shown at „Haus der Fotografie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg“. In 2017, his work „Foreign Landscapes“ won the prestigious „Carte Blanche Étudiants“
prize for young photographers awarded by Paris Photo at the Grand Palais. The following years, his works were widely shown in Galleries in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Porto, Lisbon and Vienna, to name a few.
Over the past years, he has participated not only in numerous exhibitions but also in several Artist-In-Residency programs in Europe and South Korea. In his artistic practice, Leon Billerbeck experiments with a diverse range of media to develop conceptual and process oriented artistic gestures that forma reflection of digital media in contemporary society as well as physical and sensual experiences, such as spirituality, ritual, and everyday life. Starting from there, Billerbeck is interested in the intersections of photography and painting, where the performative act in the process of creation is determined by the traces of body movements, pixels, grains and light. Billerbecks works are oscillating between the intimate and the superficial, the abstract and the trivial. Positions such as Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol as well as Process Art, Zen Buddhism and Yogic philosophy play a role as inspiration in his work.
prize for young photographers awarded by Paris Photo at the Grand Palais. The following years, his works were widely shown in Galleries in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Porto, Lisbon and Vienna, to name a few.
Over the past years, he has participated not only in numerous exhibitions but also in several Artist-In-Residency programs in Europe and South Korea. In his artistic practice, Leon Billerbeck experiments with a diverse range of media to develop conceptual and process oriented artistic gestures that forma reflection of digital media in contemporary society as well as physical and sensual experiences, such as spirituality, ritual, and everyday life. Starting from there, Billerbeck is interested in the intersections of photography and painting, where the performative act in the process of creation is determined by the traces of body movements, pixels, grains and light. Billerbecks works are oscillating between the intimate and the superficial, the abstract and the trivial. Positions such as Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol as well as Process Art, Zen Buddhism and Yogic philosophy play a role as inspiration in his work.
Education
2020-X Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Photography in the Field of Contemporary Arts (Prof. Loretta Fahrenholz, Özlem Altin, Michael Franz)
2017-18 Escola das Artes, UCP Porto, Sound Design, Porto, Portugal.
2015-19 Bauhaus-University Weimar, BFA Media Arts & Design (Prof. Ursula Damm & Prof. Björn Dahlem)
Solo Exhibitions
02/2024 … ] 3291 deleted objects [… (abwesen), Galerie Shower, Leipzig, Germany.
03/2023 Measurement Uncertainties, ARTES – MOTA GALIZA, Porto, Portugal.
10/2019 Ataxia/Ataraxia, BFA degree show, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany.
09/2018 Foreign Landscapes, Galerie Anne-Claire Simon, Paris, France.
Group Exhibitions
12/2025 System C Gallery, Marseille, France.
09/2025 Fragments of an Island, Yeosu International Art Festival, Yeosu, South Korea.
09/2025 Vernissage dans l‘espace au-dessus de la cour, Marseille, France.
05/2025 C‘est que des fleurs, PAC, Marseille, France.
07/2024 Graduate Show, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Germany.
06/2024 Waking Life Festival, Crato, Portugal.
06/2024 Wunde Punkte, (w/ Jakob Treß), West, Vienna, Austria.
09/2023 SpreeVision/WeWater, temporary off-space, Berlin, Germany. (co-curated)
11/2022 Midnight Sun, mono lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
11/2022 Journey of Multitudes, Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea.
09/2022 Co_vid: Wir im Umbruch, Galerie KUB, Leipzig, Germany.
08/2022 Waking Life Festival, Crato, Portugal.
04/2022 UPS_PSU_SPU_PUS_USP, MyPlace Selfstorage, Leipzig, Germany.
02/2022 Fibre to the dirt, Annual Academy Exhibition, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Germany.
01/2022 Gute Aussichten, Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany.
11/2021 Ein Impuls, Öffentlicher Raum, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum/Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany.
09/2021 Welten Wende, Horror Vacuii Art Space, Leipzig, Germany.
08/2021 50/50 Brocken (w/ Jakob Kukula), CURA X ROH ART, Berlin, Germany.
07/2021 You are not the only one, Bistro 21, Leipzig, Germany.
07/2021 Welten Ende, Horror Vacuii Art Space, Leipzig, Germany.
07/2021 Polyphon (supported by Kulturstiftung des Bundes) , Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Germany.
06/2021 Gute Aussichten, Landesmuseum Koblenz, Germany.
05/2021 Birra Gallery, Anuário‘20, Galeria Municipal Do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
03/2021 Gute Aussichten, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany.
10/2020 Spaziergang im See, State Of The Art Festival, Hildesheim, Germany.
09/2020 Festival Für Selbstgebaute Musik, Raw Gelände, Berlin, Germany.
07/2020 Art Biesenthal, Roh Art, Biesenthal, Germany.
01/2021 Gone Fishing, De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal.
10/2019 Berlin Photo Week, Der Greif, Kraftwerk, Berlin, Germany.
05/2019 Streaming Pictures, Museum für angewandte Künste Köln (MAKK), Cologne, Germany.
04/2019 Republic of Spirits, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany.
03/2019 Sprung 3, ARTHOUSE.NYC, New York City, USA.
02/2019 Einfach machen! (w/ Jannis Uffrecht), Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.
12/2018 Display, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany.
11/2018 Einfach machen! (w/ Jannis Uffrecht), Public Interventions, Paris.
11/2018 Photo Brussels Festival, Hangar Art Center, Brussels, Belgium.
10/2018 Semibreve, Media Art Festival, gnration, Braga, Portugal.
07/2018 Grand Ouvert - Bauhaus Photography, Kunsthaus Erfurt, Germany.
05/2018 Osmose Spectrale, Ausstellungsraum, Vienna, Austria.
11/2017 Carte Blanche Étudiants, Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France.
10/2017 Carte Blanche Étudiants, Gare du Nord, Paris, France.
04/2017 Studio Vortex Artist Residency, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, Arles, France.
07/2016 Family & Madness (curated by Nina Röder), Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany.
04/2016 Agar!Agar!, Schillerpalais, Berlin, Germany.
01/2016 Mess With Tech, Sense And Thinking, Transmediale, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany.
Awards & Grants
10/2025 DAAD International Artistic Research Grant
10/2024 Erasmus + Grant
03/2024 Project Grant (Student Council, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig)
01/2023 Criatório Fund, Câmera Municipal do Porto.
02/2022 Fine Arts Project Grant (Culture Department Saxony)
09/2021 Vonovia Award for Photography (Emerging Talent Award Shortlist)
06/2021 Kultur Neustart Grant (Studentenwerk Leipzig)
01/2021 Gute Aussichten - Young German Photography.
07/2020 Bauhaus Kreativ-Fonds.
03/2020 Deutscher Jugend Fotopreis (German Youth Photo Award).
07/2017 Carte Blanche Étudiants Emerging Photographer Award by Paris Photo and Picto.
05/2020 Bauhaus Kreativ-Fonds.
04/2017 Fashion Clip Award by Bauhaus-University Weimar in Co-Operation With European Design Award.
Residencies
09-11/2024 La Déviation, Marseille, France.
01-03/2023 DELICEIRAS18/ARTES MOTA GALIZA, Porto, Portugal.
10-12/2022 Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea
06-07/2022 Røst AiR, Lofoten, Norway.
01-02/2020 DELICEIRAS18, Porto, Portugal.
03/2017 Studio Vortex (W/ Antoine D‘Agata), Arles, France.
Publications & Releases
06/2021 Good Morning Beautfiul. Good Bye World (Ataxia/Ataraxia), self-released limited cassette tape.
10/2020 Nebelsonne Meeresrausch Rausch Rausch (w/ Jakob Tress), self-published photography magazine.
01/2020 Of Vague Sketches - TAPE001, self-released limited cassette tape.
01/2018 &and (w/ Bartu Kaan Özdişçi and Adrian Fear), self-published photography magazine.
Other Activities
Since 2020 Co-Founder of interdisciplinary arts & architecture collective “Sunburn Gaze”.
Since 2020 Member of art association “DELICEIRAS18” in Porto.
Since 2017 Co-Founder of “Carte Blanche Collective” of international emerging photographers.
Since 2016 “ROH” artist collective.
08/2016 Tutor At Bauhaus Summer School in Arts & Design.