Manuel Niederhafner was born near Lake Constanz

and grew up in small towns surrounded by beautiful landscape in Southern Germany.

 

Early on he was fascinated by some of the expressive drawings by Egon Schiele and paintings by Vincent Van Gogh

and was interested in exploring the process of perception.

 

Later he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and came to appreciate the more calm

and subtle works of painters like Camille Corot, Johannes Vermeer and Vilhelm Hammershoi.

 

He also did a 1-year internship at the “Germanisches National Museum” in Nuremberg

and studied art conservation and restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2018-2019

 

In his teaching Manuel likes to encourage students to contemplate the beauty of our world,

which is purely made out of light, as well as giving them the means to enfolding their own talents

and making their inner movements visible.