The Artist
"I see my art as a unique opportunity to combine my passion for music and lived experiences with my artistic creativity. By using bottle caps as a medium, I create not only fascinating and aesthetically pleasing images, but also a visual tribute to the energy, community and emotions I have experienced at concerts, festivals and while traveling. My art is pure creative expression of lived feelings. My vision as an artist is to bridge art and music and touch people on a deeper and more personal level."
Henning Leuschner, born in Sauerland in 1968, has settled in Cologne since 1989 and is now a renowned visual and freelance artist. Before his artistic career, the trained social worker worked in various leadership positions in the LVR's youth welfare service since 1996, managed facilities run by independent youth welfare providers and worked as a freelance systemic supervisor, coach and organizational developer in the Rhineland.
Since the beginning of his career, his artistic work has included portraits, still lifes, landscapes and city impressions, which he creates from used bottle caps. Leuschner, a passionate music lover and world traveler, draws his inspiration from the diverse impressions he collects at concerts, music festivals and on his travels. The self-taught artist's art began in an unusual way in 2013: at a garden party he discovered the potential of the bottle caps that had been left lying around and spontaneously created a work of art from them, which was later further developed and completed on the garden table.
His experimental art objects finally found their perfection in the form of pictures. As an upcycling artist, Leuschner is driven by the desire to sustainably combine art and life. His works are an expression of a deep engagement with the environment and the creative transformation of everyday objects into unique works of art. Leuschner's works reflect not only his artistic passion, but also his innovative approach to creating art as a sustainable dialogue between people and material.
Henning Leuschner emphatically describes his bottle cap art as a cultural masterpiece and the result of a creative drinking process - an analogue art form in an increasingly digital world. The starting point for each of his works of art is a deep examination of life events, which he internalizes and records in a huge collection of motifs made up of thousands of bottle caps. These are seamlessly put together to create unique works of art that impress with their perfect harmony.
Leuschner's works require no theoretical explanations. Their overwhelming presence speaks for itself and leaves the viewer speechless. The works of art develop their effect regardless of schools or concepts, grab the viewer and leave a lasting impression. Through changes in light and perspective, they continually offer new perceptions and impressions.
Each of his works of art tells a journey that culminates in a single, powerful scene. Each individual bottle cap experienced its own story during the tasting process, which fits into the overall work. These stories merge into a whole that the viewer can only imagine, making each image consist of thousands of individual experiences.
Henning Leuschner's art is a living testament to his ability to capture the essence of the human experience in an innovative and inspiring form. His works challenge the viewer to see the hidden beauty in the everyday and appreciate the unexpected depth in the simplest materials.
The works are created in the work studio on Lichtstr. 46 and this is part of the “Refugium” studio community, located in the heart of Ehrenfeld, the trendy and artistic district of Cologne between the Live Music Hall and the Vulkanhalle. Since the beginning of the artistic activity, a total of around 140 works of art have been created up to spring 2024, a large number of which are now privately owned through sales.