Amelie von Wulffen

Amelie von Wulffen studied in Munich

Amelie von Wulffen was born in Breitenbrunn in 1966. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1987 to 1994 under the Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri (born 1930) and the German sculptor and object artist Olaf Metzel (born 1952). At the beginning of her career, Amelie von Wulffen often worked with other artists, but later increasingly focused on her own individual concepts. In the 1990s, she began to develop a body of work as equally idiosyncratic as conceptually fascinating, in which she includes herself as the creator. Her own history is linked to the history of the world, and in aesthetic terms the artist favours deliberate contrasts, stylistic breaks and unexpected combinations. Often with a great deal of humour and ingenuity, she creates entire picture cycles dealing with themes which almost always have to do with the various dimensions of the concept of family. The audience's expectations are not fulfilled, but skilfully undermined.

Enigmatic with a biographical substructure

Amelie von Wulffen works primarily with collages, drawings and photographic superimpositions. Her biography stands in the background, which she processes into unmistakable images in a mixture of reconstruction and dream vision. The realities depicted consist of contradictions that are skilfully interwoven by the artist and also incorporate quotes from pop culture. This can be enigmatic, confusing and funny at the same time, such as Maya the Bee suffering from incontinence as a satirised childhood memory or other anthropomorphic animals, but also piano-playing tentacle monsters and the actor John Travolta. Different painting styles from the long history of art are shown to their best advantage, as are political reflections on contemporary history. Since 2011, Wulffen's oeuvre has also included artistic comics in which she herself experiences surreal situations, encounters Goya, self-absorbed fellow artists and has oral sex. As a result of the latter, she sometimes feels a little embarrassed at exhibitions when she stands next to such an explicit self-portrait.

Exhibition successes and awards

Amelie von Wulffen has had various solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad: in 2005 she exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, in 2015 at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, and she also took part in the group exhibitions Tauchfahrten (2005) and Made in Germany (2007). She represented Germany at the 50th Venice Biennale and Manifesta 5, making an international name for herself. Amelie von Wulffen has received prizes and awards for her art, including the Villa Romana Prize in 2000, the ars-viva Prize in 2002 and the 3rd Ruth Baumgarte Art Prize in 2016. From 2006 to 2011, she taught as a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Amelie von Wulffen lives in Berlin.