Biography

Born in Karlsruhe/Germany in 1964

The self-taught artist created his first artworks in 1989, and henceforth dedicated his life to art. Since 1994 birdman has featured in numerous exhibitions and performances in galleries in Europe, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China and America, in private collections and in several museums, including the Museum de Stadshof in Zwolle, in the Netherlands, and in the Museum "THE VERSI" in Korea. Since 2006 birdman was featured in a standing exhibition at the Museum Dr. Guislain in Gent, in Belgium, and since 2014 in a standing exhibition at the museum gugging, in Maria Gugging, Austria.

His work has been published in numerous books , among them the „Het Format“ Museum de Stadshof, „The hidden worlds - Outside Art“, Museum Dr. Guislain, „Künstlerhäuser“ Prestel publishing company, Germany, the „First exhibition of Artbrut“, Museum THE VERSI, Korea and the „Triennale of Self-Taught Visionary Art“, Museum of Naive and Marginal Art, Serbia.

The City of Hongkong awarded him the „Art Prize For Culture“.

From the German newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung he received the "Tassilo Main Cultural Prize“.

At one performance in Hongkong in 1996 Hans Langner transformed himself from a human into a bird, at which point a journalist referred to him as „The birdman of Hongkong“, the name by which he is now known. One year later a Chinese man asked him: „You are called birdman, but you don’t paint birds?“ This comment fundamentally changed his artistic work. Since that day birds have been his leitmotiv.

In 2015 gallery gauging, Austria and birdman sign an exclusive contract. In the same year he moved to Vienna and has been working and living there since.

For the last few years he has mainly dedicated his work to installations and painting on tapestries and gobelins. Regarding his technique the artist comments: „Making the invisible birds visible by painting the background - the essence, I am freeing the birds from the tapestries“.