Sophia Kesting (1983 Leipzig) is a visual artist, photographer, researcher and lecturer and lives and works between Leipzig and Brussels. Sophia Kesting's working method is based on a feminist-intersectional perspective and consists of artistic, research, textual, collective and political practice. Since 2010, her works have been exhibited in galleries, museums and off-spaces in a national and international context.
She is a PhD in practice candidate at the KU Leuven / LUCA school of Arts in Brussels.
Sophia Kesting studied visual communication in Berlin and later visual arts and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig with a scholarship from the Cusanuswerk. She graduated with a diploma in 2016 in the class for photography and media and in 2018 with a post degree with Prof. Joachim Brohm. Since 2018 Sophia Kesting was assistant professor for photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, until 2021 in collaboration with Prof. Joachim Brohm, and from 2021-2023 with Prof. Dr. Ines Schaber. Since 2021 she has been a founding member of the network "Un/learning art and design education e.V.", which reflects on patterns of thinking and acting in art and design education and awareness of power structures and intersecting forms of exclusion, and develops more inclusive content and methods.
Sophia Kesting works in the field of artistic documentary photography, ranging from photographic images to the margins of the medium of photography, incorporating auto-fictional text, sound, archive material and lecture performances into her artistic research, photographic-media installations and long-term photographic projects. In her work, she questions societal and social systems of order and makes the breaks and tensions between the past and the present visible and tangible. For several years, her frame of reference has been the peaceful revolution in the GDR, German reunification and the period of transformation, as well as the ongoing effects and challenges associated with it in the German but also European context.
2018
Post Graduate Degree in Fine Arts Photography, Prof. Joachim Brohm, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
2017
Guest student with Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, HfbK, Hamburg
2016
Diploma in Fine Arts Photography, Class for Photography and Media, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
2011
Birth of a child
2010
Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication, University of Applied Sciences (HTW), Berlin
2009
Founding Kunstraum Boulevard Parabol, Kottbusser Tor, Berlin
2003–2006
Studies of Educational Sciences, French Studies, Hispanic Studies | University of Leipzig Sorbonne, Paris
2025
Jury participation, final exams of the MA Photography students, LUCA - school of Arts, Brussels
2025
Am Strand | Lecture with Sound, Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop, Baltic Sea
2025
The Revolution 1989 – Gestures of Protest | Performative Reading, LUCA – school of Arts, Brussels
2025
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben, Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz | Reading and talk with Christin Müller, Vexer Verlag Berlin office, as part of the European Month of Photography (EMOP), Berlin
2024
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben, Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz | Book launch, reading and talk with Christin Müller, MZIN, Museum der bildenden Künste (MdbK), Leipzig
2024
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben, Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz | Book launch with artist talk, Vexer Verlag Büro Berlin
2024
Sustainability in the arts, summer academy (management + organisation), artist residency Libken, Böckenberg, Brandenburg
2024
Jury participation, final exams of the MA Photography students, LUCA - school of Arts, Brussels
2018–2023
assistant professor for photography, Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2019
Lecture Architecture and Photography | HTWK - University of Applied Sciences for Technology, Economics and Culture, Leipzig
2019
STICK TOGETHER | workshop management, exhibition organisation | AtA - Academy for Transcultural Exchange, Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2017–2018
Artistic strategies in the digital and post-digital phase - What significance is attributed to analogue photography in contemporary photography? | Seminar (evening school), Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2017
Thinking with the eye - the visualisation of inner, visual worlds | Seminar (evening school), Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2017
Learning from Athens ? | Symposium, art student council conference of the Cusanuswerk, Kassel
2025
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben 2012 - 2024 (with Dana Lorenz) | Vexer Verlag
European Month of Photography (EMOP), Berlin
2022/23
Rewriting the Photographic Image | FOTOHOF studio | Salzburg, Austria
2021
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben 2012 - 2021 (with Dana Lorenz) | Galerie ODP, Leipzig
f/stop 9. festival for photography, Leipzig
2019
Trakt IV (with Dana Lorenz) | Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig
2018
KORRELAT | Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben (with Dana Lorenz) | Galerie 3 Ringe
f/stop, 8. festival for photography, Leipzig
2017
Retreat (with Jana Schulz) | Kunstraum Loriza, Berlin | 48h Neukölln, Berlin
2016
DER PLATZ | Halle C01, Tapetenwerk, Leipzig
2015
Status Quo – Fotografien von Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz
Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Leipzig
2013
COLOR SLIDES & RIVER TIDES (with Benedikt Leonhardt) | KingSize, Leipzig
2024
Exhibition – Billboard | cotton mill, Leipzig
Liste | Porte, Leipzig
Spaces | Exhibition hall, cotton mill, Leipzig
Almresidency # 8 | Lothringer 13 Halle, München
2023
WIN/WIN – Art acquisitions of the Free State of Saxony| Hall 14, Centre for Contemporary Art, Leipzig
TRAFO | Leipzig annual exhibition, Exhibition hall, cotton mill, Leipzig
2022
DON’T KNOW WHY– 15 years of Kunstraum Ortloff | Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig
Auf ! Los ! – Tombola | Kunstverein, Leipzig
A 5 | Anfang Süd Ende Mai, Leipzig
2021
Dosis I + Dosis II | Institut für Zukunft, Leipzig
Come Closer | Hall 14 basement, cotton mill, Leipzig (Curatorial work)
Chrysantheme | Studio H18 cotton mill, Leipzig
(re:) collect / (re:) connect | Kunstraum IDEAL | Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig (Curatorial work)
2020
Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz | Intervention, city office, Leipzig
17.7. – Künstler*innen der Galerie | ODP Galerie, Leipzig
2019
PREVIOUS | Galerie Drei Ringe, Leipzig
I Engineer – selection exhibition of the Georg Meistermann Stipendium | WERKSCHAU – Hall 12, cotton mill Leipzig
Modernity. Iconography. Photography | Art Museum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg
2018
RIGHT THERE, RIGHT THEN | Fotoforum, Innsbruck
Picturing Realities: Constructed, Cropped and Reassembled | Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf
2017
Il deserto rosso now | The Photographic Collection SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln
SUPERVISION | Lange Straße 31, Frankfurt am Main
2016
Red Desert Now! | Linea de Confine | Ospitale di Rubiera, Reggio Emilia, Italy
THE AUTHORITIES ARE BADLY INFORMED | Galerie 3 Ringe | f/stop 7. festival for photography Leipzig
2015
Mythische Käse und wirkliche Käse | Zollamt Galerie, Offenbach
2014
There is no Colour but some Ideas how Things might be (Asphalt, Steine, Scherben) | Kunstraum Ortloff| f/stop, 6. festival for photography Leipzig
2013
Orte, die man kennen sollte I+II | Galerie der HGB, Kunstverein, Leipzig
2011
2. ZINE AND INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS FAIR | Kunsthalle Wien
I’VE ZINE THE DARKNESS | Galerie dieschönestadt, Halle
20. selection exhibition of the Cusanuswerks | Hochschulgalerie, Halle
2010
Der Blick von hier | Kunstraum Boulevard Parabol, Berlin
Offen, Tapetenwerk, Leipzig
2025
Artist Residency | Künstlerhaus Lukas | Ahrenshoop, Baltic Sea
2024
Work grant | Stiftung Kunstfonds | Bonn
2023
German Photo Book Award 2023/24 | Bronze in the category Artistic Photo Book | "Rewriting the Photographic Image"
Artist Residency | Almresidency | Munich Alpine foothills
Kunstfonds, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden | Funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, 2023
Project funding | KdFS | Sachsen + Catalogue funding | Cultural office | Leipzig: "Asphalt, Steine, Scherben", Publication
2022
Nomination for: Cité internationale des Arts Paris, France
Residency fellowship | FOTOHOF archiv | Salzburg, Austria
2021
Open development programme | Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst | Neustart Kultur | Bonn
Project funding for „Asphalt, Steine, Scherben“ | Cultural office, Leipzig
2019
Project- & catalogue funding for “trakt IV” | Cultural office, Leipzig + Karin & Uwe Hollweg-foundation | Germany
2018
Purchase into the collection of the Fotoforum | Innsbruck, Austria
2012–2018
Study schoolarship | Cusanuswerk | Bonn
2013
Purchase into the collection of Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig
2024
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben, Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz | Vexer Verlag | Berlin, St. Gallen
Past, present, future | frohfroh 15 | Leipzig
2022
Rewriting the Photographic Image, Sophia Kesting | FOTOHOF edition| Salzburg, Austria
DOSIS III | Spector Books, Leipzig
2021
Bildproduktion im Mansfelder Land | Werkleitz magazine | Halle
2020
In Transit | Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2019
Exhibition catalogue: Modern Iconography. Photography, Bauhaus and the Consequences 1919 – 2019 | E. A. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig
STICK TOGETHER | Akademy for transcultural exchance | Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
2018
KORRELAT , Vinyl 12" + fanfold, self-published
RIGHT THERE! | FOTOHOF edition | Salzburg, Austria
Picturing Realities: Constructed, Cropped and Reassembled Verlag Beck & Eggeling, Dusseldorf
2017
The streets, the factories, the colors, the sky, the people | FOTOHOF edition | Salzburg, Austria
2016
The Whirring of the Image Machine by Thomas Taube | Spector Books, Leipzig
2015
Status Quo | City History Museum, Leipzig
2013
Orte, die man kennen sollte | Documentation + Exhibition catalogue | Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig