Sabine Wild

London, Paris, Rome, Berlin – Sabine Wild toured Europe’s major cities armed with a camera, ready to transform monuments and skylines in her very special way. Her architectural images are works of art composed of structures and light. Wild captures the world in lines. Her typical vertical and horizontal hatching creates a flickering structure. A fascinating picture in which only hints of the underlying reality remain.

Thanks to Sabine Wild, the Römer in Frankfurt seems like a gothic convention of lights. At the same time, it is not a picture that gives off a feeling of medieval confinement; bright and fresh colours dominate. In the Sachenshäuser Ufer, the artist brings a natural element into her normally very abstract visual language. Arising from the “real” cityscape, the wintry boughs are naturally formed shapes that do not want to assimilate into the horizontal lines of the river or the verticals lines of the Frankfurt skyline. In this way, Wild’s art creates an exciting contrast between art and reality, between alienation and naturalness.

New York Projections and Asian Projections

In New York Projections and Asian Projections, Sabine Wild discovers the beauty of the night, which experiences a special appeal in cities full of artificial lights. The lit-up buildings, streetlights, and headlights serve as creative material for the artist’s urban compositions. Luminous batches of colour break through the graphical austerity that Wild otherwise consistently sticks to. The famous skylines of New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai appear as if painted: Action Painting 2.0.

Sabine Wild has further developed her vertical-line visual language and discovered the digital means for creating her work. In post-processing, she designs her thrilling compositions – dark horizontal and vertical lines stand by powerful colours, painterly passages by graphical areas. As in painting, the energetic way the colour is applied determines the effect the image has. Sabine Wild reveals a new, impressive look at the world and its architecture.

Woods

In her Woods series, Sabine Wild takes her painterly means of expression into the abstract. While her architectural images give an impression of reality, here, she dissolves it into shapes and lines. The longer one’s gaze rests on the picture, the more the lines transform back into trees.

It is not sorcery but the unique art of Sabine Wild. The composition quotes her architectural work. Lakefronts and bogs lie peacefully in the horizontal lines. Tall trees rise into strong vertical lines. In between, their boughs refine the surrounding space. Sometimes Wild leaves the subtleties of tree bark plainly recognisable, and sometimes she obscures them with superimposed lines.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sabine Wild subtly brings diverse structures and our big cities’ hidden dynamics to light. She elegantly and uniquely deconstructs urban architecture. Through the digital blurring, her photographic work takes on emphatic aspects of painting. This new art form, which Wild unquestionably created, is most clearly recognisable in her Woods series, in which she masterfully employs gestural painting and artistic photography. Born in Italy in 1962, the artist now lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

TECHNIQUE

Dissolving fixed visual structures

In her work, Sabine Wild captures landscapes and architecture in patterns of lines, shapes, and colours. She translates the swift movements and fast pace of the cities into pictures that can be read in a second. Her photographs settle into the realm somewhere between mirage and reality.

Atmospheric images

The forest compositions almost seem like an alternative draft of the urban works. In different levels of abstraction, she captures the moods of the seasons: the stillness of a winter day between the thin trunks, or the spring green, next to which those out for a stroll appear like dabs of colour. That which Sabine Wild develops through formal resolutions and impressionistic dissolutions is emotional and intoxicating.

Sabine Wild was born in 1962 in Padua, Italy. Her art has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Europe and Asia. In 2005, she co-founded the Berlin Gallery en passant, which has since been renamed ep.contemporary. Starting in 2008, she has organized an annual studio crawl in Berlin called Südwestpassage Kultour. Her work can be found in many public and private collections. Sabine Wild has been living and working in Berlin since 1985.

Solo Exhibitions

2022	Himmel und Fleisch, KUNSTWILD Projektraum, Berlin, Germany woven staccato, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2020	Wildnis, GASAG Kunstraum, Berlin, Germany Zu Wand und zu Tisch, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany Wild &  Ochse – Zoologische Ansichten, GALERIE im TEMPELHOF MUSEUM, Berlin, Germany Das wahre Leben, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany same name, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2018	Rattenhausen – aus der Serie Territorien, EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Dekonstruktion des Urbanen, VHS photogalerie, Stuttgart, Germany
2017	Absenzen – Fotografien von Sabine Wild, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2016	nachts – Fotografien von Sabine Wild, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2015	URBANE FOTOGRAFIE – BERLIN – NEW YORK – PARIS – STUTTGART, Galerie Dengler und Dengler, Stuttgart, Germany
2014	Megacities – Fotografien von Sabine Wild, Haus der Architekten, Dusseldorf, Germany

Group Exhibitions

2022	Metamorphosen, KUNSTWILD Projektraum, Berlin, Germany
2021	12 + 12, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Grenzen des Fotografischen, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Yellow Press, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Splitter Faser Akt, Galerie Christine Knauber, Berlin, Germany noch einmal, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2020	Epilog, PiB. Photography in Berlin, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany Difference and Repetition, EMOP European Month of Photography Berlin, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin Germany
2019	12 + 12, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Das wahre Leben, Südwestpassage Kultour, Berlin, Germany SHOW YOUR DARLING IV – WILDNIS,  Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany NACHEINANDER . NEBENEINANDER, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Robe of Light, WM Gallery, Chengdu, China Fotoausstellung Crossing – Berlin meets Chengdu, INSITU Berlin, Germany
2018	Wildnis, Ausstellung im Rahmen des Monats der Fotografie OFF, Berlin, Germany 13 + 13, warten.wechseln.warten.wechseln.warten.wechseln…, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Gesellschaft im Wandel, Sanhe Museum, Chengdu, China Architektur und Landschaft, RAUMSECHS, Dusseldorf, Germany SHOW YOUR DARLING III – DAS BETT, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany
2017	Südwestpassage Kultour, Berlin, Germany East meets West, IFS L7 Art Gallery, Chengdu, China ART SHOES – shoes in contemporary art, Odapark, Venray, Netherlands re:group II, ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2016	Südwestpassage Kultour, Berlin, Germany DIS/APPEAR FOTOGRAFISCHE MATERIALITÄTEN, GEDOK Berlin, Berlin, Germany LANDARBEITERHAUS, „Die Brücke“, Kunstverein Kleinmachnow, Kleinmachnow, Germany
2015	SHOW YOUR DARLING, Atelier Sabine Wild, Berlin, Germany LINIEN.STRASSE, Galerie en passant/ ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Resonance, Mr. Big International Art Center Chengdu, Chengdu, China DUESSELDORF PHOTO WEEKEND 2015, Galerie Petra Nostheide-Eycke, Dusseldorf, Germany
2014	Fluchten – Fotografien und Video, GEDOK Berlin, Berlin, Germany Let Art Talk, Mr. Big International Art Center, Chengdu, China City Lights, LUMAS, Münster, Germany
2013	IN KUNSTKONTAKTER WE TRUST – A RANGE OF VERY IMPORTANT MOMENTS, RAR-Gallery, Berlin, Germany China, Berlin und die Welt - Kunstpositionen von Reisenden und Residenten in Charlottenburger Altbau, Galerie en passant/ ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Künstlerstimme ist Kanzlerstimme, Berliner Liste, KRAFTWERK BERLIN, Germany
2012	X-City, EMG-Art Guangzhou, China Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Dengler und Dengler, Stuttgart, Germany Those were the days –, EMG-Art Beijing, Beijing, China Ausstellungszyklus Dresden: Contemporary. Landscapes, Art Corporates Galerie Coselpalais, Dresden, Germany Nature! The Mirror of Human Existence, Keukdong BD, Chungmuro, Seoul, South Korea
2011	naked, Galerie en passant/ ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany SHADOWS OF THE BRIGHT, Berliner Kunstkontakter, Berlin, Germany Expo Shanghai 2010, Haus der Architekten Dusseldorf, Germany Kälte, Galerie Dengler und Dengler, Stuttgart, Germany
2010	Modern Times – Monat der Fotografie, Galerie en passant/ ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Art.Fair21, Cologne, Germany GRANOLLERS, Spain, Barcelona
2009	City Structure, LUMAS, Cologne, Germany CROSS/TOWN – Larry Yust & Sabine Wild, LUMAS, New York, USA ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH 2009, Zürich, Switzerland Art.Fair21, Cologne, Germany
2008	Berliner Liste, Messe für aktuelle Kunst, Berlin, Germany Freizeit.Architektur.NRW, Haus der Architekten, Dusseldorf, Germany URBAN FRAGMENTS, pa’totohom, Barcelona, Spain Salz, Kunsthalle Villa Kobe e.V., Halle, Germany
2007	fragile welten, Galerie en passant/ ep-contemporary, Berlin, Germany Tier sein, Kunsthalle Villa Kobe e.V., Halle, Germany haus_frau_haus, zwischen flucht und verortung, GEDOK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2006	A 100 mit der Gruppe LU BIKS, Kommunale Galerie, Berlin, Germany kind angst, Deutsche Fotografenmesse, Berlin, Germany Rostige Aussichten & Sinnieren über …, Bundesarchitektenkammer, Berlin, Germany

When did you become interested in art? How did it all begin?
After studying German, linguistics, and Spanish, I discovered photography through my public relations position at the Federal Chamber of Architects; I photographed their events as part of my work. That's actually how I first discovered my interest in photography, which was a surprising moment.

How would you describe your work process?
When I begin to render abstract works, I have a vague idea or notion of how I want to change the motif beforehand. For me, the process of abstracting my subjects, which are usually megacities, is about changing the perception of these urban landscapes. According to the United Nations, by 2030 about 30% of people will live in cities. These megacities often trigger conflicting feelings for me: fascination and fright. By liquefying areas of color and emphasizing single bright colors, I want to show the speed of traffic patterns. Moreover, by breaking up the tectonics of the buildings and fragmenting the facades, I create a dramatic moment: the fragility of the facades.
I ask myself: What is the architectural concept of these cities? How do they influence the individual? People are never present in my photographs; they virtually disappear into the concrete masses and are, through their absence, all the more present.

Who inspires you?
People who are courageous, life-affirming, energetic, who try to go their own way, and who have a high level of social competence – and, of course, are simply likeable.

Which artists/works of art are you particularly impressed with at the moment?
I admire Chinese artist Cao Fei, whose work I first saw in her 2018 “Haze and Fog” exhibition in Düsseldorf at K21. In fact, I returned several times because I was completely fascinated by it.

What distinguishes a good work of art?
A good work of art must inspire me, unsettle me, excite me, bring me new life.

What project are you working on at the moment?
Because of Corona, traveling was not possible for quite some time. I am still working on Chonqging and Chengdu motifs from 2019. Soon, I plan to visit the Expo in Dubai and I look forward to finding new inspiration and experiencing the city’s architectural highlights.

What is the purpose of art?
Actually, my answers correspond to what I previously expressed above: At its best, art can disrupt, awaken, liberate from entrenched views, and offer new perspectives.

Does art bring about happiness?
Definitely, very much so actually! If I see even 1 or 2 good works in an exhibition, I am overcome with inspiration. And when a new idea begins to flourish, I feel electrified with excitement!