Olaf RAUH

In the new series “Multiscan,” we are made witness to urban landscapes, habitats or community plazas which shine with their absence of inhabitants and pedestrians. Through specific numerical processes, Olaf Rauh introduces polychrome masses, often in biomorphic shapes, as the essence of apparent life. Other masses resembling smoke place the viewers in a dream state. He transforms the space together with its perception. Effectively, the artist abolishes the boundary between reality and the imaginary, and plays on this correspondence by using mirror effects.

Nevertheless, Olaf Rauh’s photography is rooted in reality with no evidence of distorded proportions. The artist demonstrates accurate framing of vertical and horizontal lines, softened by sumptuous curves. Alternatively, the treatment of light and color alludes to photorealism as in the manner of John Baeder, with an infinite palette of vivid and sometimes sour tones. The artist performs multiple interventions, he scans and rescans just as a painter would add layer upon layer. As a result his colors are extremely saturated. A particular attention is focused on the decomposition of the spectrum of light, providing a force of contention with the architectural dominance within the contextual environment. At times reduced to a subtle reflection, cut sharp, or buried in a substrate, nature attempts to interfere and fights to exist.

The “Paninsula” series from 2008 plunges us into the artist’s imagination of a Pacific island unknown to the general public where the happy owners live in a paradise oasis. The geometric architectures contrast with the lush vegetation that surrounds them. In front of the works of Olaf Rauh, the question always arises to know what was the original image, what remains of it, what has been reworked, recomposed, created from scratch and how.

The totality of the works in this series suggests that each creation results from the mixing of two images, a jungle image and a building image built in some cases by the artist himself, inserting blocks of pixels like a mason superimposing blocks of concrete. In the photograph entitled Paninsula 10, like the painter who enjoys absolute creative freedom on his canvas, the totality of the image is a pure digital creation ex nihilo.

1968 Born in Leipzig in Germany
Lives and works in Leipzig and Berlin

AWARDS:

2020 Denkzeit, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsens, Dresden
2002 Séjour à la Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
2000 Persiplus, Prettiest books of the world, silver medal
1999 Persiplus, Prettiest German books , fondation Buchkunst award
1997 Grant for a residence in Columbus, Ohio, Saxon Ministry of the Culture
1996     Kunstpreis  IG Metall
1994 Residence in Bruciano, Italy
1993 Publication “Film”, mandated by the Artistic Funds of Berlin
1992     Förderkoje Art Cologne

COLLECTIONS:

Bundestegierung, Schloss, Meseberg
Kunstsammlung Chemnitz, Chemnitz
Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden
Kunstfonds Sachsen, Dresden
Sammlung der DG Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar
Sammlung FC Gundlach, Hamburg
Sammlung der Sparkasse Leipzig
Collection Vogel, Hamburg

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2016 PlaygroundsGalerie Richard, New York City works

2002-2012 Galerie Richard, Paris

2014 Coax (avec Sven Braun) Weltecho, Chemnitz

2012   Multiscan, Galerie Richard, Paris

2009    Playgrounds, Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz
50-70 %, Städtische Galerie Wangen, Wangen im Allgäu, Allemagne

2008  Paninsula, Galerie Richard, Paris

2006  Paris Code, Galerie Richard, Paris
Fotografien, Kunstverein Heidenheim, Heidenheim

2005  Paris Chiffre, Galerie André Kermer, Leipzig,
Pro Arte, Ulmer Kunststiftung, Ulm

2004  Playgrounds, Galerie Richard, Paris

2003  Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

2002  Die Skulptur, Leutkirch

2001  Blaues Feld, Richard-Haizmann-Museum, Niebühl
Sommer/Winterkollection, Gallery André Kermer, Leipzig
Arbeiten, Galerie Kruse, Flensburg

1999  DG Bank, Schwerin

1996  Synchrons/Kausal. Zeit ist Wille, Gallery Oben, Chemnitz

1994  Wasser, Städtische Kunstsammlung, Chemnitz

1993    Der Zeitreisende, Gallery Gunar Barthel, Berlin

1992   Animal, Gallery Barthel & Tetzner, Cologne

1991   Galerie Oben, Chemnitz

1990   Produzentengalerie Oscar, Karl-Marx-Stadt

1989   Verdrängte Sicht, Galerie Hermannstraße, Karl-Marx-Stadt

GROUP EXHIBTIONS:

2021 Photographie Contemporaine, Galerie Richard, Paris

2020 Im Morgenlicht der Republik, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

2019 Coming Home. Neues von Ehemaligen, Galerie Borssenager, Chemnitz

2018 Schaudepot #9, Kunstfonds Sachsen, Dresde

2017 Photographie de Saxe et de Lusace, Görlitzer Sammulgen.

2016 Digital Figurative photography ?, Galerie Richard, New York
Portraits Self-Portraits Faces, Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz

2015 Der Radius bestimmt die Geschwindigkeit, Morgner archives, Chemnitz
Selfie, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle

2014 25 Years, Galerie Richard, Paris
exposition cabinet, Galerie Josef Filipp, Leipzig

2013   Schenkung Herbert Lange – Fotografien von 1925 bis 2009, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

2011   Scheinbar sein. faktisches und virtuelles, Altana-Galerie, Dresden

2009   Das heilige, Galerie Quartier, Leipzig
Innenausseninnen, Tapetenwerk, Leipzig

2008   Art Amsterdam, Galerie Richard, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2007    Slick 07, Galerie Richard, Paris

2006    Zweidimenssionale, Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig
Switch, Galerie André Kermer, Leipzig

2005    Arte Contemporà de Dresde y Leipzig, Museo Municipal Malaga, Espagne
Schöne Grüsse aus Leipzig, Paul Klee’s Studio, Bauhaus Dessau

2004   Galerie André Kermer, Leipzig
ArtFair, Galerie Richard, Köln

2003   Kunsthaus, Kaufbeuren
Galerie Barbara Holstein, Paris

2002   Mois de la photo, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

2001    Stoff, Städtische Kunstsammlung, Albstadt

2000   Galerie André Kremer, Leipzig
Sachsen Heute, Essen, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Brussels, Belgien

1999    Dresden-Columbus Artistic Partnership, Columbus, OH

1997    Collection Vogel, Ostseebad Binz

1996-7   All+Tag 3, Dresde, Tampere, Finland and Wroclow, Poland

1995    Ausstellung des Kunstfonds Sachsen, Dresden

1994    Exhibit of the Art Fund Saxony, Dresden

1994-5   Holography, D19, Chemnitz, Galerie Dogenhaus, Berlin

1993     Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden

1992     Ausstellung des Deutschen Künstlerbundes, Aachen

1991     Jürgen Ponto Stiftung, Frankfurt a.M., Munich, Köln