Elmar Lause (born 1973 in Bochum, Germany) is a collector of flattened Coke cans, scrapbook stickers, multicoloured monsters made from plastic, vintage family photographs, antlers, comic strips, newspaper tear sheets and other seemingly irrelevant small details of everyday life are what he carefully retains in boxes, albums and in display cabinets. All of them form the foundation of the artist’s odd and queer world that he evokes in his works. The 43-year-old Elmar Lause enjoys manipulating the familiar and extracting something surprising and unexpected from the habitual. He works with the set-pieces of various imageries: comic and advertisement, art and lowbrow kitsch, video games and graffiti. In his paintings, collages and installations, these different elements of our reality are superimposed and in their combination yield orchestrations of a fantastic and crazy kind. 
“Everything that fascinates me, all that draws my attention, is incorporated into my works", states Lause. The son of the brilliant actor and art aficionado Hermann Lause, deceased in 2005, studied painting with Dieter Glasmacher and design with Welfhard Kraiker in Hamburg, Germany. "I am a story teller", says the artist about himself. His painted, air-sprayed, and glued stories full of surprises, horror and wit bear witness to this. 

selected exhibitions

soloshows:

2017:  The Gronk Show IV – Die Loge des Lebens, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2016:  Position 1, LIGA01 & Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg,

2014:  The Gronk Show III – Das Gegenständliche siegt, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2013: The Gronk Show II – Ärger im Revier, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2012: The Gronk Show, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

2011: Aschemonster, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

2010: Im Schatten der Sternenfestung, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg

groupshows:

2018:              Don´t wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Surfaces 2, Barlach Halle K, Hamburg
                        Knotenpunkt 18 – Intersection Tel Aviv, Cuckoo`s Nest, Tel Aviv
                        Love, Herr Beinlich – Contemporary Fine Art Space, Bielefeld

2017:              Don´t wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Cowboyland, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg
                        Sommer, Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark

2016:              Don´t wake Daddy XI, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Achterbahn, Westwerk, Hamburg
                        142 Jahre Kunst in Hamburg, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Zerberus, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Menschtierwir, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg

2015:              Don´t wake Daddy X, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Brave new World, Affenfaust Gallery, Hamburg
                        Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg Messe, Hamburg
                        Xanadu, Palais für aktuelle Kunst, Glückstadt
                        Knotenpunkt 15, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        60 Jahre Kunst in Hamburg, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Das eigene Ich, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Showroom Supper, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg

2014:              Don´t wake Daddy IX, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Heliumcowboy Takeover, Mercedes Me Store, Hamburg
                        Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg Messe, Hamburg
                        Knotenpunkt 14, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Big Brobot 10 Jahre – a charity groupshow, Box32 Gallery, Berlin
                        Urban Life, Heilkulturwerk, Hamburg
                        Katzen gehen immer, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Little Art Lovers, Stilwerk Gallery, Hamburg

2013:              Don´t wake Daddy VIII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Millentor Gallery, the social art and culture festival, Hamburg
                        Moorende Bauernfrühstück, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg
                        Knotenpunkt 13, Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg
                        Protect me from what i want, Stilwerk Gallery, Hamburg
                        P/ART – Producers Artfair, Kolbenhof, Hamburg
                        Local Heroes 6, Galerie auf halb acht, Hamburg
                        Overtime, Heliumcowboy Artspace, Hamburg