BONN.- Franz Ackermann who was born in Neumarkt St. Veit (Bavaria) in 1963 is one of the most innovative painters of the past ten years. Since 2001 this internationally acclaimed artist has also been employed as a professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. Time and time again, he manages to make an impression with his room filling and extremely colourful pictures, drawings and installations which effortlessly combine elements of globalised society with apparently purely pictorial aspects.

The basis for Franz Ackermann’s artistic approach is travelling. During his sojourns in different places all over the world he creates small drawings and aquarelles. These mostly abstract sketches, the so-called "Mental Maps" portray urban structures and combine objectives of topography with the artist’s mental experiences of foreign cultures. These "Mental Maps" are the nucleus from which Franz Ackermann develops his room filling and very colorful paintings. They often focus on references to contemporary crises in parts of the world which he has visited. Apart from his drawings and paintings, Franz Ackermann creates room filling installations which consist of a large array of different materials and sometimes also integrate everyday elements, such as furniture, clothes and magazines. Franz Ackermann is to develop a new set of works for the Kunstmuseum Bonn where they will be exhibited for the first time.