Film by Horst Brandenburg & Benjamin Wistorf – Subtitles Bettina Sanchez

Ulf Saupe belongs to that ever-growing generation of postmodern artists who have spent the last years of the 20th century as well as the first of the 21st century deepening conceptually and visually experimenting in photography with a keen and daring sense of storytelling, process, personal identity, spirituality and, in short, infusing them with a pathos that powerfully awakens the viewer’s attention through sophisticated empathy.


Nevertheless, his imaginative art does not fit easily into the existing categories of photography. This is mainly due to his unwavering childhood memories in the GDR, followed by the impact of a changing system after the fall of the wall, and resulting in an absent interest in trends but instead in creating a focus on essential and timeless subjects related to human existence.

His premeditated and unbounded decision to interweave the haptic with the spiritual has blurred into his works some of the utmost distinctions established by the contemporary artistic tradition such as between abstraction and representation or formalism and conceptualism. Furthermore, it has encouraged him to identify color and concepts as only one entity and beyond, when relating them to the sense of touch.

The specific way in which Ulf Saupe associates and connects artistic trends of his immediate past as well as contemporary makes him part of a small group of artists, such as Floris Neusüss, Adam Fuß, Roger Ballen and Julius von Bismark, who are rebuilding the medium of photography and moving away from the seemingly never-ending conservative position of producing images using apparatus. These artists, including Ulf Saupe, add multiplicity and complexity by expanding their variables and references, and demonstrate the powerful evolutionary capacity of the photography medium.

Indeed, the most easily perceptible references in Ulf Saupe’s work range from analytical conceptualism by his fellow artist Thomas Bachler as well as the biomorphic surrealism from Yves Klein, passing through the dynamic visual wisdom of German Expressionism. These are references that are not surprisingly new, until the viewer ends up intuiting that our artist has infused his works with a powerful alchemistic or even pantheistic vigor. Indeed, they are pictures inspired by parameters present in the natural world, which provide works with openness and structural security.

Christian Domínguez

Curriculum vitae

1979 born in Halle Saale

1999 – 2000
studied German and English at University of Kassel

2000 – 2003
studied Visual Communication and Fine Arts focused on experimental Photography in Class of Prof. Floris M. Neusüss at University of Arts in Kassel

2003 – 2006 lived in Madrid – Compultense de Madrid

2006 Degree in Fine Arts, University of Kassel
 
since 2007 works and lives in Berlin

Selected Shows

2023   Inmediaciòn, Museum CAAM curated by Fernando Castro Flórez, Gran Canaria Spain
            Water – Space Gallery St Barth, solo show, New York 
2022   Fluidity – SRH @ KIB – Groupshow, Berlin
2020   New Works, Kuenzler Weder, Zurich
2019   Eigenbedarf – Uferhalle, Berlin group show
2018   Anna Atkins refracted: Contemporary Works, The New York Public Library
            Hätte, hätte … Kunsthandel Kuenzler, Zürich
            Denn ich habe schon alles gesehn … Oststern, Frankfurt
2017   Das Blaue Land – Neue Impulse für die Kunst, Kunststiftung Petra Benteler, Murnau
            Unpredictable, Schaufenster Galerie, Berlin curated by Green & Gonzalez
            Enter Art Foundation, Berlin
2016   The Form, Colour, Texture of … – General Store, Sydney
            Cine Mare | Art Objective, Volksbühne, Roter Salon, Berlin
            Waterscapes, Pixel Grain, Berlin
2015   Water Drops, Millerntor Gallery, Hamburg
            Waterscapes, The Bumiller Collection, Berlin
2011   Art Cellar, Pret a Diner – Alte Münze, Berlin
2009   Die Natur der Dinge, Epson Kunstbetrieb, Düsseldorf
2008   La Districta , La Regenta, Las Palmas, Spain
2007   Spiegelportraits und Schattenbilder (E), Galerie Scala, Berlin
2007   Die zweite Avantgarde, Das Fotoforum Kassel 1972-1982, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle Saale
2006   Fotogramme (E), AoRTa, Chisinau, Moldavia
2006   Biennale for young Artists, Bucuresti, Romania
2006   Ohne Titel, Galerie Berlin (E)
2006   Für Mutti – 11 Bildgedichte, Alte Brüderkirche Kassel (E)
2005   100 Artists for a Museum, International Contemporary Art Museum, Casoria, Italy