‘Summer Landscape’, oil and acrylic on canvas on board | GHAT Collection
b. 1951
Born in Germany, Behrens studied Drawing and Painting at Hamburg College of Art 1971 – 1979. Later, when studying at Vienna Academy of Art, he was awarded a academic exchange grant which allowed him to complete a Postgraduate Course in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. Between 1982 and 1986 Behrens worked as a Part Time Lecturer at Edinburgh College of art, Glasgow School of Art and Grays School of Art. Since 1995 he has worked as a lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (Printmaking and Life Drawing).
Behrens’ main body of work explores a world called “Naboland”, a fictionalised place, a mythical world of snow and ice. This concept has enabled the artist to examine this new world through the lens of our own history of discovery, adopting his role as explorer to create an archive of drawings, paintings, prints and installations which record the found objects and landscapes of Naboland.