Markus Mai moves along the boundary of art and design: his objects, installations, sketches and models reference familiar product aesthetics and thus question the practical value of artistic works. Born in 1984 in Leinefelde, Thüringen, Mai currently resides and works in Leipzig. After his technical diploma he refurbished automobiles as a trained car painter in New Zealand next to being part of the artist collective Cross Street Studios. In 2009, he started his studies of media art at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where he is enrolled in Prof. Astrid Klein’s class of fine arts. Parallel to this he studies psychology at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater and completed a postgraduate study at the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam.