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Der Greif Studio x Kinrise Birmingham
Kinrise is a real estate and investment company, specialised in transforming iconic buildings in the UK into unique workplaces. Der Greif Studio collaborated with Kinrise, organising the curation and installation of local artists within their newly launched listed building in Birmingham.
The Concept – “A Thriving Birmingham”
Der Greif Studio‘s curation for 81 Colmore Row, a unique workplace by Kinrise, brings together UK based or born artists to create points of artistic inspiration throughout the newly refurbished historic building while connecting with the local artist community.
The artists: a selection of UK based or born artists.
We selected artworks by eight UK artists from our community, including two from Birmingham, to reflect the city’s creative diversity. The chosen works align with the “Six Themes of a Thriving City” promoted by Kinrise: the True, the Good, the Beautiful, the Prosperous, the Just and Well-Ordered, and the Sustainable. The curation offers a thoughtful dialogue between art, space, and community.
Thomas Martin - London based
Thomas Martin’s work explores memory as an "inner landscape shaped by what we’ve seen, felt, and lost," resonating with The True – Human Knowledge. Created during his residency near Mt. Fuji, his photographs reflect the region’s shifting landscape on a fault line – alive, adapting, and in constant transformation. This idea of resilience mirrors the theme’s pursuit of knowledge, learning from change rather than resisting it.
Léa Campbell - Birmingham based
Léa Campbell’s series, shot at Bread and Flowers workshops in London, aligns with The Good - Social Mores and Ethics. These workshops offer refugee women skills, education, and employment, helping them rebuild their lives. Campbell’s emotive photographs highlight art’s role in advocacy and social justice, fostering connection and empowerment. Her work also emphasises how creativity can drive positive transformation in society.
Katya Ilina - London based
Katya Ilina’s work, connects with The Good – Social Mores and Ethics, exploring identity, human experience, and gender. She challenges divisions by celebrating shared humanity, often working with women and LGBTQ+ communities. Her artwork "Beyond Measure" (2023) captures water transforming into fog, where the tangible dissolves into the infinite. Inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascapes, this piece reflects fluidity, perception and self-determination.
Catriona Gray - London based
Catriona Gray’s analogue processes align with The Beautiful - Aesthetics, where she turns discarded materials into vibrant, abstract artworks. Using old papers and chemicals, she embraces accidents – splattering, cutting, and soaking – to create beauty from imperfection. She often incorporates street weeds, seeing them as symbols of resilience and regrowth, much like restoring old buildings into thriving new spaces.
Christian Jago - Colchester based
Christian Jago’s work connects with The Prosperous - Economic Life, exploring cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. In his technicolour work, he captures fleeting moments in nature, layering images from Ireland, Scotland, and England to create vibrant compositions. Inspired by the seasonal shifts in the landscape, his work mirrors the constant flux of natural ecosystems and economies, emphasising transformation, innovation, and sustainability.
Catherine Losing - London based
Catherine Losing’s work, commissioned for the feminist magazine Riposte, aligns with The Just and Well-Ordered – Political and Civil Life by highlighting gender disparity. Created with set designer Anna Lomax, her geometric compositions – crafted from paper and perspex – symbolise balance and unity. The structured forms reflect the equilibrium needed for a just society, communicating complex issues through bold, impactful imagery.
Jeremy Knowles - British artist, based in Berlin
Jeremy Knowles’ "8am Walks" aligns with The Just and Well-Ordered – Political and Civil Life. Through walking, photographing and writing, Knowles critically engages with the city, questioning and reinterpreting urban spaces. His work can be seen in this context to highlight how political and civil life shape – and are shaped by – public spaces, urban flow and the hidden corners and nuances of a city. The series documents scenes of order and disorder, with elements of humour.
Sonia Bhamra - Birmingham based
Sonia Bhamra’s work aligns with The Sustainable – The Natural Environment, transforming familiar landscapes into otherworldly scenes, expanding how we engage with the environment. In her "Surreal Landscapes," shot in Birmingham parks, she highlights the importance of green spaces within cities, that offer sanctuary amidst fast-paced urban life. Her digitally manipulated photographs invite us to reconsider how we connect with nature and the spaces we inhabit.
Christian Jago’s (*1993, Colchester) artistic journey began with a childhood fascination with the visual effects of films like "The Dark Crystal" and "Blade Runner". Inspired by cinematic world-building, he combines set design, photography, and handcrafted miniature-scale sets to create fantastical environments drawn from stories, memories, and dreams. Using molding, casting, and precise lighting, he transforms these imagined spaces into striking visual realities. Beyond set photography, he explores cyanotypes, landscape photography, and 3D imaging through photogrammetry. Through his work, Jago invites viewers into immersive, dreamlike realms that spark wonder, reflection, and escape.
Jeremy Knowles (1992, Berlin) is a British multidisciplinary artist exploring culture, technology, and urban life through photography, sound, walking, and writing. His activist approach seeks to transform the urban experience. He holds a BA in Photography from the University of the Arts London and is pursuing an MA in Raumstrategien at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee. Jeremy has exhibited widely across Europe, as well as in China, Russia, and the USA.
Katya Ilina (*1990, Perm, USSR) is a London-based artist, photographer and filmmaker. Her works explore themes of identity, human experience and gender. Katya has exhibited in the UK, France, Canada, and South Korea. In 2021, she won the third prize at The National Portrait Gallery's Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. She studied image arts at Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada).
Catherine Losing (*1985, London) is a London-based photographer and filmmaker known for blending conceptual still life, portraiture, and documentary work. Since earning a BA in Photography from Nottingham Trent University, she has collaborated internationally across design, tech, food, and fashion. Her work has been exhibited at Magnum Photos, Les Rencontres d’Arles, the Barbican, and the Pinakothek der Moderne, with a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, Odesa. She has won Gold and Silver at the AOP Awards and received recognition from the Food Photographer of the Year Award and Sheffield International Film Festival. Beyond her practice, she mentors emerging photographers and delivers workshops across the UK.
Thomas Martin (*1991, London) is a photographic artist based just outside London. His interested in how we each make sense of our surroundings, the stories we tell ourselves and the memories we hold on to. Also how imagery works as an interpreter for these inner landscapes, the little fragments of memories that float within our minds.
Léa Campbell (*1995, Birmingham) is a photographer driven by a deep curiosity about people, cultures, and the varied ways they interpret freedom. She explores this theme through travel photography and long-term documentary projects that examine freedom within contexts of power, conflict, and displacement. Through socially-engaged work, her photography serves as a tool for empowerment, awareness-raising and fostering connection and understanding.
Sonia Bhamra (*1983, Birmingham) is an award-winning, multidisciplinary visual artist, focusing on photography to create visual metaphors addressing social and environmental issues. Her work blends conceptual storytelling with documentary techniques, influenced by conceptualism and surrealism. By "painting with photography," she aims to challenge perspectives on familiar topics, highlighting overlooked global concerns, from the anthropological impact on the planet to social challenges, in visually compelling ways.
Catriona Gray (*1979, London) is an experimental photographic artist creating analogue camera-less work that is always slow and handmade. She uses alternative processes that I then destroy/repair. She lives in Camden, London, and often uses street weeds as her subject matter and collaborator. They represent power, nature, rebellion, regrowth, determination, anarchy. Her practice hinges on destruction – splattering, cutting, soaking or burying film to destroy its surface. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and Camberwell College of Arts.