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Ingar Krauss

Still Lifes

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Untitled (Black locust blossom), Zechin, 2014, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Untitled (Black locust blossom), Zechin, 2014

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

17 3/8 x 20 1/2 in. (44 x 52 cm)

Edition 2 of 8

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Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, Berlin)

Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, Berlin)
Untitled (Celery & Leek), Wiepersdorf, 2010
Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint
17 3/8 x 20 1/2 in. (44 x 52 cm)
Edition 2 of 8

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Untitled (Leek), Wiepersdorf, 2010, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Untitled (Leek), Wiepersdorf, 2010

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

17 3/8 x 20 1/2 in. (44 x 52 cm)

Edition 7 of 8

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Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, Berlin)

Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, Berlin)
Fishhead, Rantum, 2011
Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint
17 3/8 x 20 ½ in. (44 x 52 cm)
Edition 2/8

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Untitled (Hare), Jena, 2014, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Untitled (Hare), Jena, 2014

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

17 3/8 x 22 7/8 in. (44 x 58 cm)

Edition 2 of 8

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Untitled (mushrooms), Wiepersdorf, 2010, Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

Untitled (mushrooms), Wiepersdorf, 2010

Gelatin silver print with applied oil paint

17 3/8 x 20 1/2 in. (44 x 52 cm)

Edition 4 of 8

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In 2010, Krauss began working on a series of still lifes – embarking, in effect, on a new form of portraiture, one in which his subjects were not human faces and personalities but the flora and fauna of the natural world. Krauss carefully arranges his pears, quinces, lilacs, and taxidermied animals in stage-like boxes of his own construction, then shoots the composition under natural light and creates a gelatin-silver print to which he applies a delicate glaze of oil paint. Some subjects are suspended from a string at the top of the box, while others are positioned in the foreground against a deep, darkening depth of field, echoing the work of the dramatic Baroque Spanish still-life painter Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560-1627) and placing the natural world, both literally and metaphorically, on a pedestal.

As Krauss explained in a 2017 interview with Roberta Levy, "Since I moved my studio from Berlin to the Brandenburg countryside, I became a gardener and dedicate a lot of time to plants and vegetables, and so they naturally became a privileged pictorial subject – in the tradition of German Romanticism and its longing for self-knowledge in nature. I am photographing the fruits and vegetables by arranging them in simple still lifes, using sometimes also dead birds or other animals which I found around my garden or which I got from old men in the neighborhood who are hunting and fishing. I am interested in the hidden relationship between the inner life of human beings and the world of plants and animals, and I want to transmute those commonplace subjects by a process of replacing inattention with contemplation."

Biography

Ingar Krauss was born in 1965 in East Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin and Zechin (Brandenburg). After learning a trade, and working for many years as a psychiatric caregiver, he turned to photography in the mid-90s and has since participated in numerous international exhibitions, such as at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma.

Krauss’ photographs are in private and public collections worldwide including the Collezione La Gaia, Busca, Italy; Collezione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bozen, Italy; Biblioteca Panizzi, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Collezione Gemma De Angelis Testa, Milan, Italy; Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austra; Ordóñez-Falcón Photography Collection, San Sebastián, Spain; The John Kobal Foundation, London, UK; Bowdoin Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, USA; Margulies Collection, Miami, USA; Vince Aletti Collection, New York, USA; Sir Elton John Collection, Atlanta, USA; Agnès b. collection, Paris; Hermès Collection, Paris; Paolo Roversi Collection, Paris; Collectie Cees Dam, Amsterdam; Hasselbladfoundation, Göteborg, Sweden; Michael Loulakis Collection, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany.

Krauss has received grants from the Berlin Chancellery for Cultural Affairs, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Kunstfonds, and the Brandenburg Ministry of Culture, and served as artist-in-residence in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Turin, Reggio Emilia, Jena and Dresden. Ingar Krauss is represented by Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, and Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin. Publications of his works include the books Ingar Krauss: Portraits (Hatje Cantz, 2005), Face: The New Photographic Portrait (Thames & Hudson, 2006), La cenere delle immagini (Marietti, 2006), Ecce Uomo (Mondadori Electa, 2006), and 39 Bilder (Hartmann Books, 2016).

Selected Exhibitions

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024
Ingar Krauss: This is not a Fashion Photograph, April - June, Jaeger Art, Berlin, Germany

2022
Ingar Krauss: Der Harte Kern Der Schonheit, Galerie Springer, Berlin
Light and Color: Photography of Ann Rhoney and Ingar Krauss, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, March 1- May 7, 2022

2020 
Naturen, Bjorn & Gundorph Gallery, Aarhus, Denmark
Festival of Lights, Nailya Alexander Gallery, November - December 2020
Texture, Nailya Alexander Gallery, January-December 2020

2019
Color of Light: Fifteen Years of Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
Lichtungen, Galerie Pankow, Berlin
Steigen, Edvard Munch Haus, Warnemünde
Vitreus, Gaggenau Hub, Milan, Italy
Naturen, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France

2018
Steigen, Galerie des VBK Brandenburg, Potsdam
About a girl, Fotohaus ParisBerlin, Arles, Frankreich
Licht im Winter, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin

2017
Wer Stillleben lebt, lebt drinnen (He who still lifes lives inside), UNO Art Space, Stuttgart

2016
Jena Paradies, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin & Galerie Josef Filipp, Leipzig, Germany
Glas, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France

2015
Ingar Krauss, Guardini Galerie Berlin, Germany
Hortus, Orangerie der Anhaltischen Gemäldegalerie, Dessau, Germany
New Stillives, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, Germany

2014
Natures Mortes, Hôtel Fontfreyde Centre Photographique, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Pflanzen und Tiere, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin

2013
Le temps suspendu. Une rétrospective, Goethe Institut Paris, France
San Salvario, Velan Center, Turin, Italy

2012
Nature Morte, Galleria Suzy Shammah, Milan & Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris
Die Wanderarbeiter, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin


2011
Youth of Dresden around 2010/Dresdner Jugend um 2010, Technische Sammlungen Dresden, Germany

2010
Davao, Goethe-Institut San Francisco, USA
About a girl, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin

2008
Birds of Passage, Goethe-Institut Riga, Latvia

2007
Portraits, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, USA 

2006
In Persona, Fotoforum Innsbruck, Austria

2005
Portraits, Marvelli Gallery, New York & Galleria Suzy Shammah, Milan, Italy

2003
Of the children we know nothing/Von den Kindern weiss man nichts, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany
The Cat’s Eye, Marvelli Gallery, New York

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 
"Zwischen Traum & Zaun – Gärten im Fokus der Kunst",Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany 
"FlowerPower. Die Kunst, mit Blumen zu sprechen" Angermuseum Erfurt, Germany  
"Wildnis Gelände Natur" Galerie Amalienpark, Berlin 
"Landeinwärts" Landtag of Brandenburg, Potsdam, Germany

2020
"Mounted Light" Galerie Sandau & Leo, Berlin 
"Sky & Heaven" Guardini Galerie, Berlin 
"Provincia" Kummerow Castle, Germany

2019
Here’s Looking at You, Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Schweden
Terra nostra – le temps de l’Anthropocène, Le Quadrilatère, Beauvais, France

2018
Bittersweet Bird of Youth, Schacher Raum für Kunst, Galerienhaus Stuttgart
Gefunden / Found, Galerie Sandau & Leo, Berlin
Ins Offene – Fotokunst im Osten Deutschlands seit 1990 / Into the Open - Photographic Art in East Germany since 1990, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle, Germany

2017
Naturliebe – Erneuerbare Haltungen, Kunstverein Walkmühle, Wiesbaden, Germany

2016
Hütte, Zaun und Horizont, Kommunale Galerie Berlin, Germany
Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf Festival, Kunstverein Kunsthaus Potsdam, Germany
Anthropocene, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan, Italy
Blanks, Haus am Luetzowplatz, Berlin

2015
Spuren, Fotografien aus der Sammlung des Kunstmuseum DKW Cottbus, Landtag Brandenburg, Potsdam, Germany
Miradas, Centro Cultural de España - Casa del Soldado, Panama
Frangit Nucem, 3rd Cramum award, Palazzo Isimbardi, Milan, Italy
Obiecta, Galleria Giacomo Guidi, Rome, Italy

2014
PORTRAIT, Macro - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Italy
WILD - Tiere in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung, Berlin
Heimat? Osteuropa in der zeitgenoessischen Fotografie, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, Germany

2013
Wanderarbeiter. Fotografien einer neuen Arbeiterklasse, Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg, Germany
Dekalog I – Ein Assoziationsraum, Guardini Stiftung, Berlin, Germany

2012
Melancholia, (mit Hans Aichinger und Sarah Jones), Klinger Forum, Leipzig, Germany

2011
Der Zweite Blick, Städtische Galerie Villa Streccius, Landau, Germany

2010
Face to Face. German Contemporary Photography, Dong-Gang Museum of Photography, South Korea
About a girl, Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie, Berlin

2009
This Is Not a Fashion Photograph, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
La Gioia, FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Little history of photography, Centro Galego Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2008    
Male – work from the collection of Vince Aletti, White Columns Gallery, New York, USA
Fotografien aus der Sammlung agnès b., C/O Berlin, Germany
Nostalgie. L’istante e la durata del tempo, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, USA

2007
Zeitgenössische Portraitphotographie, Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln, Germany
Paesaggio con Rovine - Landscape with Ruins, Quarter Progetti, Turin, Italy
Act of Faith, 14th Noorderlicht International Photofestival, Groningen, Netherlands

2006    
Quasi l’infanzia, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy
Storie Urbane, Settimana della Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Ecce Uomo, Spazio Oberdan, Milan, Italy

2005
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, USA
The Children’s Hour, Museum of New Art, Pontiac Michigan, USA

2004
About Face. Photography and the Death of the Portrait, Hayward Gallery London und Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne, Switzerland
La Dura Bellezza, Palazzo della Calcografia, Rome, Italy
Adoleszenz, Fotogalerie Wien, Austria

2003
Moti Mentali. Mirroring Victorian and Contemporary Photography, Marvelli Gallery, New York

2002
John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK