Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1976, Marcus Neustetter attended the Deutsche Schule in Johannesburg from 1982 to 1994. He read for his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, earning his Masters Degree in 2001. During this time he launched SANMAN - Southern African New Media Art Network 1998-2001. In partnership with Stephen Hobbs he has been the co-director of the exhibition space The Gallery Premises 2004-2009, and the contemporary art production team The Trinity Session since 2000.
Since the mid 90s Marcus Neustetter has been consistently practicing as a visual artist and has exhibited and performed throughout South Africa, Africa and the world. Interested in working across disciplines and in practice-led research, Neustetter values process, experimentation, collaboration and dialogue with co-producers and audience as an essential part of his practice.
In his process the context and approach informs the concept, which, in turn, dictates the forms, sites and media of a project or an artwork. Therefore Neustetter’s artistic practice ranges from conventional disciplines such as drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, video and multimedia, to large-scale projects, site-specific interventions and socially engaged programs. Influenced by his interest in cultural activism, experimental approaches, the intersections of art, technology and science and public art he fluidly moves between and fuses practices. These have been presented across development-and business-platforms, museums, galleries, and in private, public and virtual domains.
As artistic director, consultant, facilitator, researcher and strategist to various creative industry areas, Neustetter finds himself building opportunities and networks that develop interest beyond his personal artistic practice. While these are an extension of his artistic pursuit, these long-term projects cater for his appetite to work in different sectors and disciplines to develop arts industry innovations and cultural activist projects, such as projects in the capacity of The Trinity Session.
The Trinity Session (founded 2000) is a contemporary art production team defined by exchanges with its home city Johannesburg, in relation to Africa and similar developing contexts. Driven by artistic passion and vision and contextual response to affect change, the directors boast innovation in the field of socially engaged practice, cultural industry development, multi-media projects and public art programmes.
Marcus Neustetter currently moves between Johannesburg and Vienna.
