Christoph Gielen
Christoph Gielen’s photographs have been gaining visibility in the United States and Europe in the past two years. His solo show “Prelude in Concrete” will be featured at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York in November 2008. Previous exhibitions have included the 2008 “REAL Photography Award” show at the Nederlands Foto Museum in Rotterdam, Holland; the 2007 Rencontres Arles festival “Voies Off” in France; the 2006 “New American Talent” traveling exhibition, launched by Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin, Texas; and the “Traffic” biennial at New York’s Exit Art in 2005. Gielen’s pictures have been presented at international auctions and are in several American and European collections, including the ING Bank Photography collection in Holland; excerpts of his work have appeared in publications such as Cabinet and Lapham’s Quarterly. Thematically, his photography always probes quality-of-life standards in the context of urban growth and development. He frequently approaches his subjects from aerial perspectives with helicopters, and often photographs at night. Jodi Hanel, Director of Development of the Queens Museum of Art, states that “Christoph Gielen’s incredible series of photos, Conversions, [deals with subject matter that] represents a central part of American culture.” Gielen grew up in the years of complacency following Germany’s postwar economic boom. He relocated to New York as a student and received a BFA in photography from Parsons School of Design, New York, where photographer Lillian Bassman and master silkscreen printer Marie Dormuth of Andy Warhol’s Factory were his mentors. Gielen’s formative years were shaped by his longstanding association with Mitch Epstein, with whom he has closely collaborated for over a decade. He lives and works in New York City and in Bonn, Germany. |
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