Len Bay (*1994, Hamburg | they/them) lives and works in Leipzig. 2025 Bay completed their diploma in the media art department in the class for Installation and Space of Prof. Joachim Blank at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB). From 2019 to 2022 Bay studied Sculpture/Metal in the class of Prof. Andrea Zaumseil at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle/Saale and from 2018 to 2019 Fine Arts at Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts Kiel.
Developed in hybrid installative forms, Bay’s work combines minimalist clarity with deliberately employed elements that fluctuate between kitsch and the grotesque. Everyday life observations and intimate moments are fragmentarily merged with memories and storytelling, often autobiographical, to construct new modes of authenticity. Bay’s work emerges from long-term research and imagination processes, accompanied by continuous investigation into materiality. Alongside their profound sculptural focus, Bay seeks to allow moments of identification in their installations, following an autotheoretical approach. They aim to create productive spaces of ambiguity, allowing for the interweaving of digital and physical space, collective memory as well as personal reconstruction. As Bay examines fundamental existential themes of human relationships, proximity/distance and the ambivalence of love and belonging, their works often stand in dialogical relationship to one another, acting as retellings or continuations.
selected shows
artist talks
residencies
2025 Acts of Soft Defiance - SLUG, Leipzig
2025 no matter what - A&O Kunsthalle, Leipzig (duo show with Valentina Plank)
2025 Giving and Giving - HGB, Leipzig
2024 This exhibition has closed now... Tomorrow - AS/EM, Leipzig
2024 secret garden: a lament - Werkschauhalle, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig (with SLUG)
2024 no longer [...] not yet - HGB, Leipzig
2023 (glad) you made it - TTTT, Leipzig
2023 Lost and Found - GU11, Cologne
2023 Guests, Hosts and Ghosts - International Art Center, Petersburg
2023 Herbstrundgang - Kombinat e.V., Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig
2023 studio residency - Kombinat e.V., Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig
2023 membra(I)nes - 12th Annual Conference of the Gender Studies Association, HGB Leipzig & Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle/Saale
2023 Queer reading als membranisches Schwingen - panel discussion with Prof. Dr. Barbara Paul, Magdalena Götz, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jenny Schrödl, by invitation of the 12th Annual Conference of the Gender Studies Association, HGB Leipzig & Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle/Saale
2023 landing - HGB, Leipzig
2022 artist talk with Nilay Şahin - by invitation of the Institute of Art at the Karlsruhe University of Education
2022 xyz - Orgelfabrik, Karlsruhe
2022 juicy things - Volkspark Galerie, Halle/Saale
2022 artist in residence - Faucogney-et-la-Mer, France
2022 14 piqûres de guêpes - Faucogney-et-la-Mer, France
2022 Einblick Ausblick - Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle/Saale
2022 Summe mit Mond - Schloss Donzdorf, Donzdorf
2021 Neues Sozialdrama Kunst - HALLE 6, Munich
2021 Zum Rasen auf der Stelle bis zum Knock out - Hühnermanhattan Kultur e.V., Halle/Saale
2020 LICHTBLICK - Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin
2020 Silver Surfer, so fast so furious - Franckeplatz, Halle/Saale
2019 Einblick Ausblick - Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts, Kiel
2019 Unbefangen - Pop-Up-Pavilion, Kiel
contact
lenbay(at)proton.me
