Karsten Födinger was born in 1978 in Mönchengladbach, Germany. He studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe.

Realized through the engineering or construction techniques, the oeuvre of Födinger brings forth the role of the mechanics as a constitutional element of sculpture­. His work reminds the viewer that it is such a genre that rigidly follows the law of physics. The architectonical fundamentals, such as the cantilever, the avalanche breaker, or the riverside reinforcements, are utilized as a language for one to reflect on the climatic, geographical uncertainties that grounds and un-grounds the current planetary condition.

Solo museum exhibitions include ‘Geroplastik’ Kunstverein Mönchengladbach (2018), ‘Graue Energie’, Archizoom EPFL Lausanne (2018), ‘Struttin’, Kunstforum Baloise, Basel (2013); ‘Collection display: 14. Baloise Art Prize’, Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2013); ‘Void’, KIOSK, Ghent (2012); ‘C30/37; XD1, XF2’, Kunsthalle St. Gallen (2012); and ‘Cantilever’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2011).

He is the recipient of the 2012 Baloise Kunst-Preis, Art 43 Basel Statements. 

Födinger lives and works in Berlin.