Schrader had his first solo exhibition in 1969 in the Galerie des Städtebauministeriums (gallery of the ministry for urban construction) in Bonn, showing his first series of works Quadratreihungen (Sequences of squares) consisting of drawings and relief pictures made of perspex.

He was commissioned by the state government in Kiel to show his installation Kubuskoog (Cube polder) in the German pavilion at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover.

With their unusual angular or pointed forms Schader’s Cubecracks are initially perceived as alien bodies – whether encountered in urban surroundings or in the countryside.

Since 1974, Schrader has been working in drawings, paintings, objects, installations, animated film and sculptures to explore the idea of “the cube as a space of art”.

[4] Whereas certain sculptures such as those executed in plaster grow in the course of being shaped by the artist’s hand, or others such as those made of marble diminish by being hewn with hammer and chisel until they achieve their final form, Schrader’s Cubecracks arise in an entirely different manner.

But one soon sensed that these objects were necessarily separate parts of a whole which, while no longer physically extant, was nonetheless implicitly present in each of its individual components.

Indeed, the individual Cubecracks are certainly not products of accident: on the contrary, the artist consciously selects his cuts so as to create what strikes him as the most interesting forms.

“As ‘figures’ they cause us almost to forget their constructional method, or at least relegate it to the background.” (Knut Nievers)[9] Describing the effect of Elastic Cubes, Klaus Reeh wrote: “Atmosphere is ultimately Schrader’s style and, not unlike an architect, he creates sculptures that exude a powerful and lasting presence in the space surrounding them.

At the same time, the bright red frames transform the previously unremarkable sites in nature where they are installed into arenas for challenging and even poetic encounters between organic forms and geometrically abstracted purity and clarity.