Sebastian Riemer

Sebastian Riemer questions the photographic medium’s claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls “photographic ruins”. His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.

Riemer attended the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf under Christopher Williams and Thomas Ruff. His work has, amongst others, been acquired by The Israel Museum (Jerusalem, IL), the JPMorgen Chase Art Collecition, the FRAC Normandie (Rouen, FR) and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Helga de Alvear (Cáceres, ES). Recent solo exhibitions include Kosmos 1-0, Galerie Dix9, Paris (2024), Front Page Back End, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf (2023), DAS ENDE DES XX JAHRHUNDERTS, Setareh, Berlin; Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim; Kunstverein Recklinghausen (2021), 25y and one blue x, Setareh, Düsseldorf (2020); Archivarische Empathie, Münchener Stadtmuseum, München (2019) and In plain Air, SCAG Contemporary, Vienna (2018). Riemer lives and works in Düsseldorf.