As a child I wanted to be an alchemist. I am still fascinated by the idea of the Renaissance cabinet of curiosities, which was believed to contain all the knowledge of the world and give us insights into the beauty and order of creation.

Jahna Dahm’s work is a homage to the ancient past, showing us that art is universal. Her work is about exploring a universal language that unites different eras and cultures and tells stories about the human longing for meaning. She is an artist who creates works based on her knowledge of archaeology, cultural history and art history. In her sculptures and drawings she uses only the highest quality materials, such as historic semi-precious stone pigments or 24-carat gold leaf, to create works of undeniable value. She shows her work as large-scale installations and in the context of historical collections, opening up new ways of understanding art.

Jahna Dahms (1972) was born in Cottbus, Germany. She studied fine arts at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden and is a Meisterschüler of Eberhard Bosslet at the HfBK Dresden. Dahms also studied art history, history, prehistory and philosophy. She graduated from the Technical University of Dresden. Throughout her career, she has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Saxony state postgraduate fellowship and the Marion Ermer Prize. Her work has been exhibited at the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig and the Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain de Liège. Dahms is the founding dean of the Faculty of Design at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences. There she developed the curricula of the design degree programmes as a contemporary continuation of the Bauhaus concept and taught as professor of conception and drawing. She researches artistic concepts and works on a definition of art.