Peter Welz was born in Lauingen (DE) in 1972, lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (1993-1995), at the Cooper Union, New York (1997), and at the Chelsea School of Art, London (1995-1998). Since the beginning of the 2000s, he has developed a research focused on the human figure and its relation with space and architecture. His work is characterized by multimedia installations in which painting, video and dance allow Peter Welz to evoke the main features of sculpture (figure, space, movement), treating them in mutual sequence. The interest in architecture and movement led him to work on the series Portrait. Started in 2005, it is an ongoing visual study on different subjects: Portrait #1 is dedicated to Francis Bacon and realized in collaboration with choreographer William Forsythe, who conveys through his dance the dynamic structure of the last Francis Bacon’s portrait, which has been founded in his studio after his passing in 1992. The installation Retranslation | final unfinished portrait (francis bacon) was exhibited for the first time at Musée du Louvre in Paris in 2006. Then, Portrait #2 is dedicated to Casa Malaparte, the remote house of poet and writer Curzio Malaparte, placed on Capri Island.

Welz pictures it not only as an architectonic structure, but as a choreographic space surrounded by an isolated landscape. The work is influenced by the film frames of “Le Mépris”, directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963. Portrait #3 stems from the analysis of the movie “Deserto Rosso” (1964) by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian cinema master who has redefined the concept of “narrative film”, focusing on the image and the actors’ faces, in particular on the gestures of the main character played by Monica Vitti. In 2019 Welz started Portrait #4, focused on the figure of AA Bronson, friend and co-founder of the artistic collective General Idea. In 2021 he continues his visual investigation with Portrait #5, dedicated to the Scottish artist Douglas Gordon.
Over the years, his solo shows have been held in important international institutions, such as: Casa degli Artisti, Milan (2020); Maiiam Contemporary Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2019); Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern (2010); GNAM, Rome (2009); Weserburg | Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen (2008); Musée du Louvre, Paris (2006); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2005); Museum for Modern Kunst, Goslar (2005); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004); Goethe Institute, St. Petersburg (2003).

Peter Welz took part also in group exhibitions in institutions, such as: Hoffmann Collection, Berlin (2020); Falckenberg Collection, Deichtorhallen-Phoenix Hallen, Hamburg (2019); Marta Herford Museum, Herford (2019); Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Oslo (2018); Le Tripostal, Lille (2017); La Cinémathèque Française, Paris (2015); Museum für Moderne Kunst Weserburg, Bremen (2014, 2008); National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2013); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2011); Kunsthalle Hamburg (2010); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2007); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2005); Vincent van Gogh Institute, Venray (2002); ICA Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2001). The collaboration between the artist and Galleria Fumagalli began in 2005 on the occasion of Welz’s participation in the group show “Visioni”, curated by Annamaria Maggi and presented at the Former Sant’Agostino Church in Bergamo. In 2009 Welz opened his first solo show at the Gallery, followed by the second one, “Portraits | Installations”, 2014, and by “Portrait Malaparte”, 2016, the latter was held in the Gallery’s new venue in Milan.

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

PETER WELZ
Portrait Malaparte

Opening 16 November 2016
17 November to 20 December 2016

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PETER WELZ
Portraits | Installations

Opening 13 November 2014
14 November 2014 to 6 January 2015

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PETER WELZ

Opening 10 October 2009
13 October to 30 November 2009

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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Visioni. 20 artisti a Sant’Agostino

9 April to 11 June 2005

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