Starting in March 2023, the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf will present the first retrospective of Düsseldorf-based artist Andreas Gefeller’s photographic work. The exhibition features 60 pieces from Gefeller’s overall oeuvre, sketching the artist’s development from his beginnings in analogue and digital photography to his most recent works, which recall 3D renderings. The presentation explores Gefeller’s questioning of photographic processes and experimental handling of the medium, which continually gives rise to new realities.
Gefeller challenges visual perception by reconfiguring such categories as large and small, light and dark, colorful and colorless. It is an approach that likewise carries over to viewers, who find themselves confronted with photographs that at first seem soothing but turn more disturbing upon closer inspection. His backdrop-like shots of resorts at night, constructed views of urban spaces or light-drenched cityscapes give visual form to modern social phenomena. Although long exposure times ensure that humans do not appear in Gefeller’s images, their presence is felt, nonetheless. Gefeller shows a technologized world, one in which nature is dominated by humankind.
Born in Düsseldorf, Andreas Gefeller studied communication design and photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. His work has been shown at exhibitions in Amsterdam, London, and New York, among other places. Gefeller lives and works in Düsseldorf.
