Christina Lissmann is a Cologne-based artist working across painting, photography, video, and installation. Her work engages questions of consciousness and the unconscious, dream, perception, and human embodiment. Trained in medicine, philosophy, art history, and ethnology, and shaped early on by her work alongside Sigmar Polke in Cologne, she approaches art as a form of inquiry. Since 2018, the focus of her practice has been painting.

 

Selected Exhibitions

2026
Sacred Origins, ArtKlub Bonn, Bonn (solo)

2025

Aftershow – Aesthetic Positions between Retreat and Resistance, Cologne (group)

2023
Mindful by Christina Lissmann, Cap San Diego, Hamburg (solo)

2022
Pearls & Bones Paintings 2020–2021, Boutwell Schabrowsky, Munich (solo)

2015
Outer Space, Space Operation, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool City Council, Australia (group)

2014
Christina Lissmann – Fellow 2013 des Kollegs Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche Haus, Weimar (solo)

2013
In Conversation, Neue Kunst Gallery (solo)
Art Karlsruhe, Neue Kunst Gallery (group)

2012
Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney (solo)
Terra Incognita, Hotel de Rome, Berlin (solo)

2010
La Pala di San Zeno, Christina Lissmann incontra Andrea Mantegna, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona (solo)

2009
Hugo Boss Hong Kong, Exhibition Space, Hong Kong (solo)
Art HK, Felix Ringel Gallery, Hong Kong (group)

2008
Das Herbarium des Heraklit, Zeithaus / Autostadt Wolfsburg (solo)

2007
Allzeit, Zeithaus / Autostadt Wolfsburg (solo)

2006
EU.RO.PA, Europapassage, Hamburg (solo)

2005
Das Herbarium des Heraklit, Medienzentrum Bremen (solo)

2004
Pain of Separation, Kunstraum Chelsea, Cologne (solo)
Internationaler Medienkunstpreis 2004: unSICHTBARes / pain of separation, ZKM Karlsruhe (group)

2003
The Cellproject I – Art in Situ, Centrum für Innovative Medizin, Hamburg (solo)

2001
Brave New World, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (solo)
Monitor Mirror Space, Zehn Räume Auf 20 Fuß, HafenCity Hamburg (group)

 

Education

PhD in Philosophy and Art Theory, University of Vienna
MA in Philosophy, Art History, and Ethnology, University of Cologne
Studies in Medicine, University of Cologne
Early artistic formation through her work alongside Sigmar Polke in Cologne

 

Awards / Grants

2022
Working Grant, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Neustart Kultur

2013
Fellowship, Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche, Weimar

2004
International Media Art Prize, ZKM Karlsruhe, for unSICHTBARes / pain of separation (group)
Thrombotrac Art Award, SIMFO Bayreuth (solo)

 

Academic Teaching

2013
Berlin University of the Arts, Studium Generale
Teaching assignment: Dream Images and Dream Interpretation between Philosophy and Art, block seminar

2004–2005
University of Duisburg-Essen, Department of Art & Design
Teaching assignment (substitute): Emotional Rescue – Kunst versus Angst

1995–1996
University of Vienna, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies
Colloquium assistance in philosophy with Prof. Dr. Kurt Rudolf Fischer

Selected Lectures / Talks

2016
Stiftung Weimarer Klassik, Goethe National Museum
Der Traum von der Stille und der Verlangsamung der Zeit

2013
Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle
ZWISCHEN(T)RÄUME – Grenzbereiche des Bewusstseins

2012
Denkerei, Bazon Brock, Berlin
Endlichkeit und Halbwertzeit

2009
Humboldt University Berlin, Cultural Studies Seminar
Der Code der Leidenschaften, Media Section (moderation)

2007
Rhein Design – Cologne International Design, Daab Verlag, Cologne
Stephen Williams Architects

2006
Medienzentrum Bremen
Die Farbe Gelb – Eine kulturhistorische Skizze

2002
University of Fine Arts Hamburg
Vom Chaos zur Kunst

1995
University of Vienna
Keynote: Der Traum bei Nietzsche und Freud

1994
Stiftung Weimarer Klassik
Zarathustras Träume und Visionen

 

Selected Publications

2015
Interviews with Richard David Precht, Till Brönner, Dieter Meier, Theo Roos, and Friedrich Liechtenstein, friendly hunting magazine

2010
“Gift und Kunst,” Monopol – Magazin für Kunst und Leben, Berlin
Conversation with Prof. Dr. Norbert Bolz on cultural journalism, Journalist online

2007
Stephen Williams Architects, monograph, Daab Verlag, Cologne

2006
“Pop Goes the Easel,” Sleek Magazine 10, New York
“Ilja Kabakov, East I West,” Sleek Magazine 12, New York / Berlin
“Philosophische Pharmazie,” in before selling out, Hamburg

2005–2006
Selected essays and interviews in Sleek Magazine, New York / Berlin, including texts on Thomas Hirschhorn, Jürgen Klauke, Jacqueline Humphries, Tony Oursler, Gerard Goodrow, and Gina Lee Felber

2004
“Schön und gespenstisch leer – Deutschlands zerstörte Synagogen,” ART – Das Kunstmagazin

1999
“Zarathustras Träume und Visionen,” in Entdecken und Verraten. Zu Leben und Werk Friedrich Nietzsches

1998
I Love New York. Crossover der aktuellen Kunst, exhibition catalogue, DuMont Verlag, Cologne

1996
Der Traum bei Nietzsche, dissertation, Vienna
Der Traum bei Nietzsche und Freud, Vienna