June 02, 2015
HONG KONG: ‘Hong Kong Narratives’ by Michael Wolf and Ho Fan at Michael Wolf’s Studio

Hong Kong
‘Hong Kong Narratives’

Michael Wolf and Ho Fan

@ Michael Wolf’s Studio
A504 Kailey Industrial Bdg, 12 Fung Yip Street, Chai Wan, HK

Dates: 14-15 March 2015
Saturday-Sunday 11:00 – 7:00

in collaboration with Blue Lotus Consultancy
during Art Basel Hong Kong 2015
and coinciding with Chai Wan Mei Festival

Ho Fan, one of Asia’s most beloved street photographers, explored Hong Kong’s Hong Kong in the 50-60’s. People take centre stage against smoky backgrounds and intriguing compositions. Michael Wolf shares the same fascination for the city but instead hunts the back alleys for traces of human activity.

Also on view is michael wolf’s ongoing collection of bastard chairs.

June 02, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO: ‘Words Matter’ solo by Michael Wolf at the Robert Koch Gallery

‘Words Matter’

@ Robert Koch Gallery, 49 Geary Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108 

19 February – 2 May, 2015

Opening Reception: March 5, 6-8 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Tue-Saturday 11:00 – 5:30 

Robert Koch Gallery presents Words Matter, an exhibition that features a wide spectrum of work by twelve artists who incorporate text with images. 

Featuring work by:

Jeff Brouws, Hugh Brown, TR Ericsson, Elliott Erwitt, Steve Fitch, Robert Heinecken, Shai Kremer, Jan Lukas, Bill Owens, Brian Ulrich, Michael Wolf, and Alexander Zhitomirsky. 

June 02, 2015
SYDNEY: ‘Hong Kong Inside Outside’ solo by Michael Wolf at the Tin Shed Gallery, University of Sydney

‘Hong Kong Inside Outside’

@ Tin Shed Gallery

University of Sydney 

3 February – 2 April 2015

Talk with Michael Wolf on Thursday 26th of March.

Artist and photographer Michael Wolf will exhibit the works from two previous collections, Architecture of Density and 100 x 100 in a new exhibition Hong Kong Inside Outside at the University of Sydney’s Tin Sheds Gallery.

July 07, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO: ‘Paris Abstract’ by Michael Wolf at Koch Gallery

‘Paris Abstract’

July 10 – August 30, 2014

Reception for the Artist:
Thursday, July 10, 2014 5:30 – 7:30 p.m

At Robert Koch Gallery

49 Geary Street
5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-17:30
info@kochgallery.com

SAN FRANCISCO- Robert Koch Gallery is pleased to present Paris Abstract, an exhibition premiering new work by renowned photographer, Michael Wolf. In Paris Abstract, Wolf continues his exploration of the urban landscape and expands on his fascination with density and life in cities. Formal in nature,Paris Abstract lyrically expresses both the architectural complexity and density of the Parisian landscape.

In 2008, Wolf began living part-time in Paris after living in Hong Kong for over a decade.At that time he was apprehensive about the prospect of working in his new home city, concerned about the clichés associated with images of Paris. It was during this period that he produced the series Paris Street Views by essentially sequestering himself in his apartment and appropriating images of Paris from Google Street View.

Since then, with his distinct perspective, Wolf photographed Paris eschewing well-known locations and focusing instead on the innumerable roof tops each with its own identity. Wolf’s strong geometric abstractions offer the viewer a freshly re-contextualized Parisian landscape that examines the density and life in a contemporary metropolis.

Born in Munich in 1954, Michael Wolf was raised in the United States and Germany. He studied at UC Berkeley before earning a degree from the University of Essen in Germany as a student of Otto Steinert. Wolf is recipient of a 2005 and 2010 World Press Photo Award, and his work was included in the Hong Kong Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale for Architecture. Wolf’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt, the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg, and the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau. His photographs are included in prestigious collections both domestically and abroad at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Deutsches Architektur Museum, and the Museum Folkwang, Essen.

 

 

 

 

April 02, 2014
AMSTERDAM: ‘My Favorite Thing’ by Michael Wolf at Wouter Van Leeuwen Galerie

at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen

Opening: Saturday 12 april, 4 pm

Exhibition runs until May 17th, 2014

Address: Hazenstraat 27, 1016 SM Amsterdam, 06-52031540,

opening hours: Thurs-Sat.: 12.00-18.00

 

Uit fascinatie voor de ongebreideld expanderende Chinese economie vestigde Michael Wolf (München, 1954) zich indertijd in Hong Kong. In de visuele chaos van de stedelijke dynamiek vond hij zijn ultieme inspiratie. Zelfs na 20 jaar raakt hij niet uitgekeken. Wolf heeft een uitmuntend oog voor grappige details die hij verrukkelijk obsessief weet te catalogiseren. Daarbij wordt hij geboeid door de intrinsieke waarde van simpele gebruiksvoorwerpen en materialen.Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen presenteert My Favourite Thing, een expositie rond twee series uit Wolfs meest recente oeuvre: Hong Kong Trilogy en de wereldprimeur van Hong Kong Flora.Voor Michael Wolf is er altijd wat te ontdekken, met name in de details of de kleine dingen die zich boven ooghoogte afspelen. Verwaaid en verweesd wasgoed dat in bouwsteigers, telefoondraden, regenpijpen, bomen of lichtreclames is blijven hangen. Werkhandschoenen die na gedane arbeid te drogen zijn gelegd om morgen weer gebruikt te worden. Zwabbers die eenzaam of keurig in gelid tegen een dranghek leunen, op waslijnen liggen of tegen gevels rusten. Draadeindjes, kleurige stukjes geplastificeerd binddraad, samengebundeld en bewaard om opnieuw gebruikt te worden, vastgeknoopt aan waslijnen of weggestopt achter regenpijpen. Kapotte, gemaltraiteerde stoelen die als straatmeubilair een nieuwe bestemming vonden. In Hong Kong Trilogy bewijst Wolf eer aan het nijvere werkvolk en diens uit ruimtegebrek en pragmatisme ontstane assemblagekunst.In Hong Kong Flora – waarvan Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen de wereldprimeur heeft – richt Wolf zijn camera op natuurlijke en kunstmatige aangroei. Airco’s die als klimop tegen buitengevels zijn geplakt, zij aan zij met potplanten en plantenbakken. Subtiele staaltjes van burgerlijke eigenzinnigheid en een aarzelend pogen van weerbarstige gewassen om te overleven in de betonnen jungle. Planken en richels die functioneren als geïmproviseerde vensterbanken. Miezerige stekjes die kwetsbaar langs regenpijpen een weg naar omhoog proberen te vinden. In hoeken en gaten weggestopt illegaal groen, onbereikbaar achter tralieramen of door metalen roosters gevlochten. Groene natuur die opzettelijk teer en onschuldig lijkt te willen blijven, in de hoop dat niemand het opmerkt. Een op voorhand verloren strijd tegen de onstuitbare urbanisatie. Zie ook de alsmaar uitwaaierende vertakkingen van regenpijpen die aan het wortelstelsel van mangrove-bomen doen denken.Michael Wolf vestigt de aandacht op objecten in de visueel rijke, dicht bebouwde openbare ruimte die we al te makkelijk over het hoofd zien. De boeken Hong Kong Trilogy en Hong Kong Flora (dat zijn vernissage beleeft) zijn in de galerie aanwezig. De kunstenaar zal tijdens de opening aanwezig zijn. 

 

 

April 02, 2014
AMSTERDAM: Lecture Michael Wolf at FOAM

Date: Friday 11 April 2014

Location: Foam, Keizersgracht 609, Amsterdam
Language: English
Time: 8 pm – 9pm. (Prior to the lecture there is the opportunity to dine at the Foam Cafe from 6 pm.)
Tickets and reservations: € 19,50 (lecture, entrance and dinner with drink), € 9,50 (lecture and entrance). Supporters of Foam (Fan, Club, Fund) pay € 5,00 (lecture and entrance)

Buy tickets for the lecture by Michael Wolf

 

Foam and Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen
On April 11th, Foam and Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen present a lecture with Michael Wolf. At April 12 the exhibitionMichael Wolf: My Favourite Thing opens at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen. On this occasion Foam and Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen invited Michael Wolf to give a presentation on his work in Foam. Photographer Michael Wolf will discuss his transition from photojournalism to project-based work, the genesis of his acclaimed mega cities series, and his ongoing love affair with Hong Kong, the city that has been his home for 20 years. After the lecture Michael Wolf will sign his latest book.

Dinner
Especially for this evening, chef Miguel Brugman of the Foam Cafe offers a special dinner with market-fresh organic products, prior to the program. Vegetarian options are also available. A main course with a drink costs € 19,50. After completion of the program the Foam Cafe will stay open.

Michael Wolf
Wolf began his studies with Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany, in the 1970s, going on to become a leading photojournalist in Europe, and later a contract photographer in China for Stern magazine.
His work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.
He won first prize in the World Press Photo Awards in 2005 and 2010, receiving an honorable mention in 2011. In 2010, Wolf was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Photography Prize. He has published 20 photo books.

The series
Paris Street View deals with the cultural identity of Paris. With the aid of Google Street View technology, Wolf investigates the concept of representation and symbolism. By using pixelated images from the internet, he breaks through Paris’ nearly universally recognisable photographic iconography and suggests a new way of reading the city.

In Hong Kong Trilogy Wolf pays tribute to solutions that emerged from lack of space and pragmatism. Wire ends, coloured pieces of plasticized binding wire, bundled and stored to be used again, tied to clotheslines or tucked behind drainpipes. Broken maltreated chairs who found a new use as street furniture.

In Hong Kong Flora Wolf focuses his camera on natural and artificial growth. Air conditioners that are pasted as ivy against outside walls, side by side with potted plants and planter boxes. Subtle feats of bourgeois quirkiness and a hesitant attempt of recalcitrant crops to survive in the concrete jungle. He draws attention to objects in the visually rich, densely populated public space, that we easily tend to overlook.

Michael Wolf will also talk about  his series Architecture of Density, Transparent City and Tokyo Compression.

For more info click here: http://www.foam.org/visit-foam/calendar/2014/lecture-michael-wolf.

 

 

 

March 23, 2014
Michael Wolf – ‘Tokyo Compression’ as seen in ‘The Photobook: A History Volume III’ by Martin Parr

 

The Photobook: A History Volume III

Hardback, published by phaidon
290 x 250 mm, (11 3/8 x 9 7/8 in)
320 pp
900 colour illustrations
9780714866772 | 0714866776

 

The third and final volume in Phaidon’s acclaimed Photobook series, hailed as ‘the most important contribution to the field since modern histories of photography began to appear in the early 20th century’ (photo-eye)

Martin Parr and Gerry Badger

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Following the success of volumes I and II of The Photobook: A History, this third volume brings the history of the photobook up to date, with specific exploration of postwar and contemporary examples. It covers key themes including the globalization of photographic culture, the personalization of photobooks, the self-publishing boom and the new ‘layered’ photobook approach.

While the history of photographs is a well-established canon, less critical attention has been directed at the phenomenon of the photobook, which for many photographers is perhaps the most significant vehicle for the display of their work and the communication of their vision to a mass audience. Volume III, co-edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, expands this study and history of the photobook further. It explores the symbiotic relationship between the contemporary propaganda book vs. the protest photobook, sex and youth culture, photographers examining their own environments and the impact of the Internet and social media on the nature of the photobook, among much else.

The book is divided into 9 thematic chapters, each featuring general introductory text providing background information and highlighting the dominant political and artistic influences on the photobook in the period, followed by more detailed discussion of the individual photobooks. The introductory chapter texts are followed by spreads and images from over 200 books, which provide the central means of telling the history of the photobook. Chosen by Parr and Badger, these illustrations show the most artistically and culturally important photobooks in three dimensions, with the cover or jacket and a selection of spreads from the book shown.

 

 

 

March 21, 2014
LIEGE/ BELGIUM: ICONES At Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège

BIP 2014 MARCH 15 -25 MAY
PIXELS OF PARADISE
IMAGE & CROYANCE // IMAGE & BELIEF
9TH INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ARTS – LIÈGE

EXHIBITION: ‘ICONES’

At Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège – BAL, the BIP2014 programm will complement the Museum’s permanent collections. Classical and modern paintings, figurative and abstract art, contemporary pieces, treasures of the Wallonia–Brussels Federation and the Graindorge collection will be reorganized to fit the BIP2014 selected theme of ways of distancing, reflecting and resonating. The broad issue of artistic representation, its scope and its impact on the meaning man has given the world throughout the ages will be questioned through photography and video. The pictorial will be replaced by the mechanical image and vice versa through subtle multiplier effects and reversals. The accepted categories of art history, consecrations and achievements will be viewed through the small end of the telescope.

On the 3rd floor, in the presence of a specially-made selection of seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century showpieces, the question of portraiture and the body will be put into perspective at the intersection of painting and photography. Mythical symbolic representations, particularly as regards the question of spiritual elevation, will also be brought into reconsideration by the presence of contemporary works that will cause the visitor to re-examine them from a different angle, close and distant at the same time.

The 2nd floor – devoted to the “Treasures”, to modernity and to the contemporary – will also be witness to a unique meeting between current occurrences of photography and reputed artistic movements. Impressionism, surrealism, and abstract and minimalist waves will here discover their future through reinterpretations and continuation that unexpectedly fall within the course of development in the history of art and techniques.

Treasures from the Wallonia–Brussels Federation Collection, including the famous paintings from the sale of Lucerne, will meanwhile be presented in an aloof preamble where the figure of the cursed artist, of the masterpiece, of the original and of the unique will be reinterpreted with humor and yet depth.

Finally, plunged into darkness, the Salle Saint–Georges (groundfloor) will house video installations in which rising and falling, and movement and stillness, will meet in resonance.

The BAL exhibition closes with a presentation in the Young Artists’s Space of two young photographers’ work, especially selected for the occasion.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Jean-Claude MOSCHETTI (F), Sophie LANGOHR (B), Thomas DEVAUX (F), Léa Golda HOLTERMAN (ISR), Raoef MAMEDOV (RUS), Alexandre CHRISTIAENS (B), Sasha BEZZUBOV et Jessica SUCHER (US), Corinne VIONNET (F), Thomas CARTRON (F/B), Thomas DEMAND (D), Max PINCKERS (B), Michael WOLF (D), Damien HUSTINX (B), Fabrice FOUILLET (F), Marco BRAMBILLA (US), David CLAERBOUT (B), Marie-Jo LAFONTAINE (B), Lola MEOTTI (F/B), Audrey TCHEN-FO (F), Benjamin LEVEAUX (B), Renaud GRIGOLETTO (B) et une proposition curatoriale de Michel FRANCOIS (B) et Guillaume DESANGES (F).

(http://bip-liege.org/en/exhibitions/icones/)

 

 

 

March 18, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO: Lecture by Michael Wolf

Tuesday, March 18 2014 | 7pm

Free and open to the public No RSVP – Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street San Francisco, CA 94107

https://www.cca.edu/calendar/2014/lecture-michael-wolf

More info: Jessica Skloven at jskloven@cca.edu

Photographer Michael Wolf will discuss his transition from photojournalism to project-based work, the genesis of his acclaimed mega cities series, and his ongoing love affair with Hong Kong, the city that has been his home for 20 years.

This lecture is copresented by SFMOMA and California College of the Arts. Generous support for the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program is provided by the Pilara Foundation / Pier 24 and Randi & Bob Fisher. Additional support by the Black Dog Private Foundation.

 

 

 

January 10, 2014
LONDON: Talk at the Photographer’s Gallery

Friday 17 Jan 2014 | 7 pm

Talk: ‘Life in Cities’

The Photographer’s Gallery

16 – 18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW
http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/michael-wolf

Photographer Michael Wolf discusses his transition from photojournalism to project based work, the genesis of his acclaimed mega cities series and his ongoing love affair with Hong Kong, the city that has been his home for 20 years.

Michael Wolf began his studies with Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany in the 1970s, going on to become a leading photojournalist in Europe and later a contract photographer in China for Stern magazine.

His work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, California and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

He won first prize in the World Press Photo Awards in 2005 and 2010, receiving an honorable mention in 2011. In 2010, Wolf was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Photography Prize. He has published 20 photo books.

£10 / £7 concs

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