Thomas Scheibitz (b. 1968, Radenberg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Drawing from classical painting and architecture, the contemporary urban landscape, and popular culture, Scheibitz deconstructs and recombines signs, images, shapes, and architectural fragments in ways that challenge traditional contexts and interpretations. Selected solo exhibitons include: Studio Imaginaire, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2014); NEON, Vom Leuchten der Kunst, Städtische Galerie Saarbrücken, Germany (2014); Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2014); Thomas Scheibitz: A Panoramic VIEW of Basic Events, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2012); Pilar Para Romero, Madrid (2011); A moving Plan B– chapter TWO, Sprüth Magers, London (2011) and A moving plan B- Chapter ONE, Selected by Thomas Scheibitz, The Drawing Room, London (2010). Selected group exhibitons include: The Bigger Picture: Work from the 1990s, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2014); Fruits de la Passion, la collection du Centre Pompidou, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art Kobe, Japan (2014); The name is BURROUGHS– Expanded Media, Deichtorhallen Hamburg- Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg (2013); Surveyor, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2011); Wahlverwandtschaften III, Neues Museum Weimar, Weimar (2011); A moving plan B - chapter ONE, (curated by Thomas Scheibitz), The Drawing Room, London, UK (2010); and Multiple Pleasures, Functional Objects in Contemporary Art, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA (2010). Scheibitz has work in many public collections, including: the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Tate Modern in London, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Dirk Bell (b.1969, Munich) lives and works Berlin. Selected solo exhibitoons include: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig (2014); Wiederkehrt, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Hildesheim (2014); SCHON UND GUT, BQ, Berlin (2013); SOFT IS HARD (Work), Sadie Coles HQ, London (2012); Retour, Pinakothek der Moderne, München (2011); and MADE IN GERMANY,  touring at The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Sadie Coles HQ, London & Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2010). Selected group exhibitions include: Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen (2014); The Crime Was Almost Perfect, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2014); Girls Can Tell, Gesellschaft Fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (2013); Property of a German, Svit, Prague (2013); Dirk Bell, Nina Rhode, Markus Wirthmann, BQ, Berlin (2013); Flow, Prague Biennale, Prague (2013); Merci Mercy, New York (2013); Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art from Germany, Saatchi Gallery, London (2011); A moving plan B-Chapter ONE, The Drawing Room / Tannery Arts, London (2010); The Menippean Uprising, blank projects, Cape Town (2010); and Under One Umbrella, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2010).

Tacita Dean (b. 1965, Canterbury, UK) lives and works in Berlin. Studied at Falmouth School of Art, UK, 1985-1988 and the Slade School of Fine Art, UK, 1990-1992. Recent solo exhibitions: …my English breath in foreign clouds, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, US (2016); Event for a Stage, 52nd Theatertreffen, Berlin, Germany (2015); Tacita Dean: The Friar’s Doodle, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York, US (2014); Tacita Dean, SMK, Copenhagen, Sweden (2014); JG, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah, US (2014); JG, Film Forum, New York, US (2014) and JG, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France (2014). The Unilever Series: Tacita Dean,Tate Modern Turbine Hall (2011). Recent group exhibitions: Into Great Silence, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Sevilla, Spain (2015); The Problem of God, K21/Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany (2015); Saltwater: a Theory of Thought Forms, 14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2015); Landskrona Foto Festival, Landskrona Museum, Sweden (2015) 2013 Il Palazzo Eciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace, Venice Biennale, Italy (2013); Unattained Landscape, The Japan Foundation, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Palazzetto. Venice, Italy; Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany. Tacita Dean is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.

Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) was an Austrian artist. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna during World War II. She was best known for known for her painted self-portraits characterized by fluid strokes of bright paint vividly suggesting the colour and texture of her own ageing skin, although the personas that she adopted were often extremely ambiguous. She was the first female artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988. In 2013 was awarded the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale. Lassnig’s has been the focus of surveys at Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York (2014), Halle für aktuelle Kunst, Hamburg, Germany (2013), Gallery of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2012), Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria (2012), Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York (2011), Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2009), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria (2009), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, US (2011), Serpentine Gallery, London, England (2008), Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland (2007), Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany (2006), Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2005), Städelmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (2004), Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland (2003) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1994). Lassnig's works are held in the collection of the MOMA in New York. Her estate is represented by Hauser & Wirth and Petzel Gallery.

Carlfriedrich Claus (b.1930 in Annaberg, DE, d. 1998 Chemnitz, DE) lived and worked in Annaberg-Buchholz and Chemnitz. Claus was an artist, author, philosopher, one of the main representatives of visual poetry. Selected exhibitions include: … eine nahezu lautlose Schwingungs-Symbiose. Die Künstlerfreundschaft zwischen Franz Mon und Carlfriedrich Claus, Briefwechsel 1959–1997. Visuelle Texte. Sprachblätter, Chemnitz/D (2013); Carlfriedrich Claus, Geschrieben in Nachtmeer, Berlin (Akademie der Künste)/D, Zug/Ch, Dresden/D (2011); A Moving plan B- Chapter ONE, Drawing Room, London (2010); Schrift. Zeichen. Geste. Carlfriedrich Claus im Kontext von Klee bis Pollock / Writing. Signs. Gesture. Carlfriedrich Claus in context from Klee to Pollock, Chemnitz/D, Linz/Au, Moscow/Ru (2005); Carlfriedrich Claus, Lautprozess-Raum, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (1995); Carlfriedrich Claus, Erwachen am Augenblick, Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz), Münster, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin etc (1990); and Schrift und Bild, Amsterdam/NL und Baden-Baden/D (1963). Honours inbclude: Member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin-West (1991); Honourary Professorship of the Free State of Saxony (1991); and (German) Federal Cross of Merit (1997). His works are at the MoMA New York, Kupferstich-Kabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstichkabinetts der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin etc. The artist’s entire estate (his visual and acoustic works, theoretical texts, correspondence etc.) is kept at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Stiftung Carlfriedrich Claus-Archiv, which can be accessed here: http://www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de/index.php?loc=ksc&content=cfc, [email protected]

Paul Jeffrey Sharits (b. 1943, d. 1993) was born in Denver, Colorado to Paul Edward Sharits and Florence Romeo. Paul Edward and Florence had one more child, Jeffrey Leigh, a few years later. Having had demonstrated tremendous artistic abilities in art, Paul was awarded a full scholarship to The University of Denver’s prestigious School of the Arts. Once he completed his Undergraduate studies, Paul married Frances Trujillo and began his master’s studies at The University of Indiana in Bloomington where he had his only child, Christopher in 1965. Shortly after Christopher was born, Paul’s mother, who was being treated for manic-depression, more commonly known as Bipolar Disorder, committed suicide. Paul was already fascinated with 16mm film by 1960 and had established a mentorship and friendship with filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Already known for his Structuralist Film Exploration, Paul taught at Maryland’s Art Institute and Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio before being recruited by Gerry O’Grady to teach at The University of Buffalo’s Media Studies Department in Buffalo, New York where he remained a popular professor until his death. He divorced Frances in 1969. Paul’s younger brother Jeffrey, an accomplished filmmaker in his own rights, suffered from Bipolar Disorder, tragically committed suicide in Berkley, California in 1980. Paul, who was also Bipolar, committed suicide in Buffalo, New York on July 8, 1993. His son Christopher writes about his affliction with Bipolar Disorder in Denver, Colorado with his family. More information about Pauls's life and work can be found at http://paulsharits.com/