Felix Dobbert

Ever since finishing his studies in Hamburg and Essen, Felix Dobbert has dealt with the classic genre of still life photography, imbuing it with his own independent, contemporary interpretations. He is not so much interested in the symbolic meaning of objects, but in the formal relationships between object and space, color and volume — aspects that he prefers to examine in different series of thematic works. Characteristic of this process is his rigorous composition, executed under clearly defined conditions and expressed in artificial groupings and situations. Through this nearly mathematical precision he is able to gain new, surprising perspectives of mundane motifs, some bordering on surreal distortion of the arrangements.

Stations on this path are, for example, the »Edges«, featuring Styrofoam packaging pieces that seem to float like flying techno-objects against a black background. A contrast is the continuing series »still under construction«, made up of nothing but the individual pictures Dobbert produces to delve into the confusion of reflections and overlapping of simple objects in the space.

In the more recent series the artist turns flower motifs into the richly varied theme of his scenes. One of these is »Some Flowers«, in which individual flowers are added, like artificial objects, to a minimalist setting made of plastic products. »Random Flowers« touches upon an entirely different form of radical distortion. Here, Dobbert uses the panorama function of his camera to repeat them ad absurdum. Accordingly, the flowers — hydrangeas, again — look as if they are frozen inside a movement that has fractured multiple times, as if they are doing pirouettes inside the pictorial space. And in »Blossom Works«, which lends its title to the show, the artist makes innovative use of the algorithms of digital photography: filling the large format, the blossoms reveal an abstract, ornamental, astonishingly flexible life of their own. For this, Felix Dobbert uses Oblique App as an artificial tool.

VITA
 

1975
born in Hamburg

1996
Studies in communication design, Hamburg University
of Applied Sciences

1996-2004
Studies in photography and communication design, Folkwang University of the Arts, Prof. Jörg Sasse

2004
gute aussichten – new german photography award (award winner)

2005
Kodak Newcomer Award

2006
Passage, Scholarship by the City of Düsseldorf for a residency in Toulouse, France

2013
International Marianne Brandt Award (nominated)

2016-18
Visiting Professor for photography at Department of Fine Arts, Giessen University

since 2018
Head of Photography at Department of Fine Arts,
TU Dortmund University

2022
Member of German Society for Photography (DGPh)

lives and works in Düsseldorf
 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022
Broken Flowers, Gießkannenmuseum Gießen

2018
Blossom works, Rasche Ripken, Berlin
Floral Traits, Walzwerk Null, Exhibiton space for photography and video art, Düsseldorf

2016
Random Flowers, Coelner Zimmer, Düsseldorf

2015
Reconstructions – natură statică în progres, Galerie Urania,
Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg), Romania

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022
Flowers! Blumen in der Kunst des 20. & 21. Jahrhunderts, Museum Ostwall, Dortmunder U, Dortmund
Dr. Carl Dörken Galerie, Herdecke

2021
DIE GROSSE 20/21, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
Vier im roten Kreis, Museum Ostwall, Dortmunder U, Dortmund

2020
Interieur, Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2019
Stillleben, Kunstverein Ladenburg
La Fleur de l’Art, Parcours Saint-Germain, Paris

2018               
Perspectives. Strategies of Photographic Actions, 10th Darmstadt Days of Photography
gute aussichten deluxe: New German Photography after the Düsseldorf School, Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg
10 Jahre 10 Dinge 10 Gäste, Rasche Ripken, Berlin

2017
5x5 still lifes, The Contemporary Still Life in Photography: An Experiment, Museum Ratingen; KiZ [Kultur im Zentrum], Gießen
gute aussichten deluxe, Museo Cancilleria, Mexico City

2016
5x5 still lifes, The Contemporary Still Life in Photography: An Experiment, Palais für aktuelle Kunst, Kunstverein Glückstadt

2015
Gegensätze, X-pon Art Gallery, Hamburg
Brauhausfotografie, Universität Siegen

2014
DIE GROSSE 2014, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Die Poesie des Funktionalen, Neue Schule für Fotografie, Berlin
Tandem, Fotolehrende und ihre Studierenden, Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen

2013
Marianne Brandt Award, Sächsisches Industriemuseum, Chemnitz
analog zu digital, Künstlerhaus Dortmund

2012
Flächen, Museum Ostwall, Dortmunder U, Dortmund
Galerie Minken & Palme, Berlin