Image: 40 x 48 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 48 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 48 x 63 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 52
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 52
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 8 x 10 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 8 x 10 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 49,6 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 8 x 10 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 35 x 44 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 10 x 8 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 48 x 68
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 68 x 48
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 55
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 68 x 48
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 48 x 68
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 40 x 55
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 55 x 40
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 55 x 40
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 50 x 40
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 48 x 60 inch
Edition of 3 + 1 Artist Proof + 1 HC
Image: 48 x 60 inch
Edition of 3 + 1 Artist Proof
Image: 34 x 27 inch
Edition of 9
Image: 20 x 16 inch
Edition of 9 + 2 Artist Proof
Image: 20 x 16 inch
Edition of 9
Image: 30 x 24 inch
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proof + 1 HC
Image: 44 x 34 inch
Edition of 3 + 1 Artist Proof
Presentation
Michael Wolf has been observing life in the cities and cities architectural structures for more than 15 years which resulted in a unique work.
In Hong Kong, he used to take pictures of the strikingly formalistic and severe buildings characterizing this megalopolis. The result of this - which can be seen in the series "Architecture of Density" - was almost abstract.
Michael Wolf's interest for the people living in such spaces and their relations to the city increased by chance when he enlarged a detail of the glass buildings he was then photographing in Chicago. The series "Transparent City" juxtaposes images from the buildings and pixellated details with blown-up details of the life within.
Wolf's curiosity about accidentally captured human situations led to work with the immense image archive of Google Street Views, made of «stolen» images. With great precision he isolated scenes from the streets of Paris. By framing and directing our gaze, Michael Wolf highlights the little habits of our urban lives with images capturing the humour, beauty and absurdity of daily life and raising the question of constant surveillance of public spaces. Intrusion was already the main subject of the series "Tokyo Compression" made in the Tokyo underground.
If the series "Street View" was partially taking place in France, however the French architecture was only indirectly evoked. Michael Wolf wanted to give his own vision of Paris as he had been divided his time between Hong-Kong and Paris for the last ten years. But the unceasing and frustrating point was: how is it possible to take original pictures of Paris when it has been so much photographed and by so many great photographers? How is it possible to give a different vision of a city which architecture has largely remained unchanged for more than a century?
Then came the idea of taking pictures of Parisian zinc roofs, existing since Haussmann's nineteenth century restructuring and which are so particular, being one of the main characteristics of Parisian architecture and which distinguish from the roofs of other capitals all over the world.
Then Michael Wolf captured the top of the Parisian buildings, raised close to the chimneys, looking for different viewpoints. During Summer and Fall 2014 he visited dozens of high terraces and an astonishing series resulted from this, a series which tightly crops the local architecture and reveals dense patterns made of roofs, chimneys, buildings' edges. But as always in Michael Wolf's work, human presence is not so far: if you do observe carefully the details of some pictures then you can guess life interfering in the most abstract photos such as either a silhouette behind a curtain, or a worker repairing a gutter or lovers' graffiti painted on a very high wall, very close to the sky.
Biography
Born in 1954 in Munchen, Germany.
Lives & works in Hong Kong and Paris.
EXHIBITIONS
2018
- Life in Cities, FotoMuseum Den Haag, Netherlands
- Insidious, La Galerie Particulière, Paris
2017
- Life in Cities, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Eglise des Frères Prêcheurs
2016
- Informal Solutions @ MOTi, Breda, Netherlands
- Photography and Contemporary Experience, Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA
- Hong Kong Back Alley, Peperoni Books Pop-up store, Milan, Italy
- Informal Solutions, Michael Wolf’s studio, c/o with Sarah Greene/Blue Lotus G
- In and/or Out, Seiichi Furuya und Michael Wolf – Grisebach, Berlin, Germany
- The Soul of Money, DOX centre for contemporary art, Prague, Czech republic
- Paris Rooftops, Bau-Xi Photo, Toronto, Canada
- Informal Solutions, Book Launch c/o WE PRESS and Sarah Greene/Blue Lotus G
2015
- Paris Rooftops – m97 project space, Shanghai, China
- Digital Conditions, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany
- Blind Walls and Night Trees, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Hong Kong Narratives, Michael Wolf’s studio, c/o with Sarah Greene/Blue Lotus G
- Back Alley Deconstructed, pop-up @ wontonMeen, curator: Sarah Greene, Hong Kong
- Words Matter, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- Hong Kong Inside Outside, Tin Shed Gallery, university of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2014
- BindWalls - Paris Roof Tops, La Galerie Particulière, Paris
- Eyes on the Street, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, USA
- The Rush Calm, Moments in the City, Fotomuseum den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
- Privat / Privacy, Schirn Kunsthalle, Francfort, Germany
- Web on the Wall, Robert Koch Gallery, New York, USA
- The Photographers 2014, Beetles+Huxley Gallery, Londres, England
- About Portraits, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Netherlands
- Vichy Portait(s), Festival de Vichy
- The Real Toy Story, chi K11 art space, Shangaï, China
- Hong Kong Trilogy, 25 Books, Berlin, Germany
- Architecture of Density, Flowers Central, London, England
- Small God, Big City, M97 Gallery, Shangaï, China
- My Favourite Thing, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Netherlands
- Paris Abstract, Robert Koch Gallery, New York, USA
- Perduti nel paesaggio, Mart Rovereto, Rovereto, Italia
- Urban Spirit, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
2013
- Archicture of Density, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Small God, Big City, 25 Books, Berlin, Germany
- Industrial Architecture, M97 Gallery, Shangaï, China
- Von A bis Z, Ruhr Museum, Essen, Germany
- Parallax, M97 Gallery, Shangaï, China
2012
- Bottrop Ebel 76, 25 Books, Berlin, Germany
- von sinnen: wahrnehmung in der zeitgenoessischen kunst, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Street View Portraits, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Total City, IVAM, Valence, Spain
- Public: collective identity | occupied spaces, The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
- Making History, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Francfort, Germany
- Hong Kong and shenzhen biennial of urbanism/architecture, Hong Kong
- The Near and Elsewhere, PM Gallery, London, England
- Davos Art Exhibition, meeting of the world economic, Davos, Switzerland
- Bamboo Theater Exhibition: Portraits of Cantonese Opera Singers, Museum M+, Hong Kong
- Highrise: Idea and Reality, Museum of Design, Zurich, Switzerland
- Virtual Identities, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Fiorenza, Italia
2011
- Prix Pictet: Growth: Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland ; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Arteversum, Dusseldorf, Germany ; Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italia ; Galerie Christophe Guye, Zurich, Switzerland ; Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece ; Passage de Retz, Paris
- Untitled, Flowers Central , London, England
- Fotodoks, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany
- Life in Cities, Galerie Christophe Guye, Zurich, Switzerland
- Infinite Balance: Artists and the Environment, Museum Photographic Arts, San Diego, USA
- Real Fake Art / Tokyo Compression Revisited, 25 books, Berlin, Germany
- Cities: Visionary Places, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA
- Metropolis. City life in the urban age 2011, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen, Netherlands
- Sifest #20, Savignano Immagini, Savignana Sul Rubicone, Italia
- SH Contemporary, Shanghai, China
- Life in Cities, Gun Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
- Hail Traveler!, Rick Wester Fine Art, New York, USA
- Summer in the City, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- NY Temporary: the City through Photography, Film and Video, Museum Center of Photography, New York, USA
- Street Photography Now, Uno Art Space, Stuttgart, Germany
- 10 Years, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Metropolis, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- I'm watching you, Elipsis Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
- Fear in the City, Monnaie de Paris, Paris
- Tokyo Compression, Forum für Fotografie, Koln, Germany
2010
- We are watching You, La Galerie Particulière, Paris
- I see you, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, USA
- Paris Street View, Goethe Institut, Hong Kong
- 12ème Biennale Internationale d'Architecture, Pavillon de Hong Kong, Venise, Italia
- Paris Street View/Tokyo Subway Dreams, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Paris Street View/Tokyo Subway Dreams, Gallery 51 Fine Art, Anvers, Belgium
- Life in cities, M97 Gallery, Shanghai, China
2009
- Transparent City / Architecture of Density, La Galerie Particulière, Paris
- Julie Saul Gallery, New York, USA
- Atelier Elipsis, Istanbul, Turkey
- Entropy Art, Naples, Italia
- Aperture Gallery, New York, USA
- Gallery Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Gallery 51 Fine Art, Anvers, Belgium
- Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, USA
- Landscape as Dream (group show), Studio la Citta, Verone, Italia
2008
- Transparent City, Museum for Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
- Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- Hong Kong Back Door, Lumenvisum Gallery, Hong Kong
- The Real Toy Story/Architecture of Density, China Design Now, London, England
- Eastern Standard, Western Artists in China, Mass MoCA, North Adams, USA
- Herita ge, Hong Kong Corner Houses, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong
- Real Fake Pictures/Architecture of Density, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007
- Pieces of China - A Retrospective of Michael Wolf's China Projects (catalog), Museum Center, Vapriikki, Tampere, Finland
- Two Photographers in a Dialog: Architecture of Density, with Stephen Canham's, Traveling Gypsie's Homes, Hallische Gallerien, Dresden, Germany
- Real Fake Art/100 x 100, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- China Projects/100 x 100, Real Fake Art, The Real Toy Story, M97 Gallery, Shanghai, China
- Fake? Portraits of Chinese Copy Art, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong
- Hong Kong Industrial, Ursula Huber Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
- New Urban Vistas, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, USA
2006
- Architecture of Density/Architecture of Work, Art Fair Kunst Zürich, Gallery Huber, Zurich, Switzerland
- Gallery 51 Fine Art, Paris Photo, Paris
- Artspace 1918 (group show), Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
- 798 Photo Gallery, Beijing, China
- Janet Oh Gallery, Seoul, Korea
- Hasted-Hunt Gallery, New York, USA
- Artspace 1918, Shanghai, China
- Architecture of Density/China Copy Artists, Gallery 51 Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium
- 100 x 100, Gallery of the Goethe Institute, Hong Kong
- Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, Korea
- Gallery Laif, Cologne, Germany
- The Real Toy Story, Museum for Work, Hambourg, Germany
- Hong Kong Architecture, Robert Koch Gallery, AIPAD, New York, USA
- Sitting in China», Kap Forum, Cologne, Germany
- New Work from Hong Kong, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2005
- Architecture of Density, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- Robert Koch Gallery, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Ping Yao Photography Festival, Ping Yao, China
- Useful, Cute and Collected. The Photographed Animal, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
- Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door, Galerie Colette, Paris
2004
- Truth! - Photographyies Promise of Reality, Ruhland Museum, Essen, Germany
- The Real Toy Story, John Batten Gallery, Hong Kong
2003
- Sitting in China, Kestner Museum, Hannover, Germany
2000
- Peking Shanghai Shenzhen: Cities of the 21st Century, Bauhaus Museum, Germany
CATALOGS
2017
- Michael Wolf Works, Peperoni books
2013
- Hong Kong Trilogy, Peperoni book
2012
- Tokyo Compression - III, Peperoni Books
- Small Gods, Big City, Peperoni Books
- Bottrop Eeel 1976, Peperoni Books
2011
- Tokyo Compression - revisited, Peperoni Books
- Tokyo Compression, Peperoni Books
- Portraits, Superlabo
- Fy, Peperoni Books
- Real Fake Art, Peperoni Books
- Hong Kong Corner Houses, Hong Kong University Press
2010
- A Series of Unfortunate Events, Peperoni Books
- Growth, Pictet Prize, Teneues Verlag
COLLECTIONS
- La Monnaie de Paris, France
- The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, USA
- Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
- San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, USA
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
- Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
- Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA
- Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, USA
- German Museum for Architecture, Frankfurt, Germany
Exhibitions
Press
Les Toits de Paris
28.02.2015
Télérama Sortir
Michael Wolf, sur le zinc
18.02.2015
Libération
Blind Walls - Paris RoofTops
11.02.2015
Télérama Sortir
Là où se niche la poésie
21.01.2015
Télérama Sortir