Leonid Keller’s works deal with images that are deeply rooted in our collective visual memory. They refer both to historical images of political events and social structures and to everyday symbols that convey a sense of cultural belonging. The Berlin-based artist duo, consisting of Julia Ossko and Eugen Schulz, combine these visual elements to create multi-layered installations. A central element of their artistic practice is works on paper, in particular collages and drawings. For their collages, they use an archive of international magazines and illustrated books that they have built up over the years and which offers a multitude of visual stimuli. In addition, they create large-format graphite drawings that further transform the visual material. Taken as a whole, the works open up a space in which the interactions between image perception and cultural identity are reflected upon and questioned.
Julia Ossko (1978) and Eugen Schulz (1984) have been working together as the artist duo Leonid Keller since 2013.