Xaver Könneker
based in Rotterdam, NL

He is a visual artist, teacher, and researcher who merges cultural theory with photography. His work explores themes such as mortality, identity, and popular culture. Inspired by Lucian Freud’s quote, “The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real,” he focuses on how our social, cultural, and political backgrounds influence both the way we perceive and interpret the world (perception) and what can come into our field of perception (perceivability)

Education

BA of Liberal Arts and Science from University College Maastricht (focus on cultural theory)

MA Photography and Society from Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.

2014- 2017

2020 -
2022

Teaching

Xaver Könneker is currently a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague for the BA Photography Programme.

2022 - now

Recent

Residency at Goethe Institute Rotterdam 

Group show GRAW 2023 at SOUP 

Group show “Tilting at Windills” at Kunstmuseum Den Haag  

International Conference of Photography and Theory (ICPT) presenting “Kodak Knows No Dark Days” in Nicosia, Cyprus

2023

2023

2023

2024

Grants & Prizes

Recipient of the Mondriaan Fund for visual arts and cultural heritage

Recipient of the Amarte Visual Art Development Grant  

Nominated for Deloitte Photography Development Grant 

Nominated for 18th edition of Lions Film Award 2023

Shortlisted for Source Photographic Review Writers Prize

2024

2023

2023

2023

2022

Publications

Article in Dust Magazine #25 The Smile Issue

Front cover of FOAM Magazine #57: In Limbo 

Mentioned in British Journal of Photography: Exploring Loss through Photography 2020