Biography
Christian Scheidemann grew up in Bonn, Germany, where he studied the conservation and history of medieval art. After eight years of training in conservation of painting and polychrome sculpture (Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Pinakothek Munich), Christian held a position as conservator at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. In 1984, he opened his own studio practice in Hamburg, focusing exclusively on the conservation of contemporary art.
Contemporary Conservation Ltd. in New York was founded by Christian in 2002, following growing demand by various artists to preserve and consult on non-traditional artist’s materials, such as elephant dung, donuts, human hair, and Vaseline. For the next 20 years, the international team operated within a vibrant context of art production.
From 2012 to 2017, Christian was the lead conservator in research project Material Matters (Neubauer Collegium) and the conservation of Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic (Campus Art Collection) at the University of Chicago.
He organized the symposia The First Crack - Conservation and Value in Contemporary Art (2015)
And Body of Work – Contemporary Artists’ Estates and Conservation (2018).
