Ralf Brueck
Ralf Brueck (*1966) is an exponent of the Düsseldorf School of Photography, which has gained worldwide renown through Becher, Höfer and Ruff, whose master class he attended in 2002. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1996 to 2003. Ralf Brueck is an active member of the international artist group darktaxa-project and works at the interface of photography and digital image processing. He has received several awards and grants, including the Bonn Art Fund, the Villa Romana Grant and the Leo Breuer Grant. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Deutsches Haus New York, Lianzhou Museum of Photography Guangzhou, Austin Center for Photography, Signal Gallery New York, James Harris Gallery Seattle, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Arnsberg, SK Stiftung Kultur Köln, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum Ratingen, Museum Baden Solingen, Art Cologne, Goethe Institut Helsinki. His works are included in the collections of the Alison and Peter Klein Collection, the Candida Höfer Collection, the Thomas Ruff Collection, the Viehof Collection, the Museum Ratingen, the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, the Kunsthaus Kornelimünster, the Hanten and Schmidt Collection. Ralf Brueck lives and works in Düsseldorf. He is represented by Kunst & Denker Contemporary in Düsseldorf and Schierke Seinecke in Frankfurt. Ralf Brueck lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Link: www.ralfbrueck.com
In his working groups "Distortion" and "Deconstruction" Ralf Brueck works with self-taken photos as source material. These analog or digital photos (after a possible scan process) are then digitally edited with common image editing programs. Brueck "affects" the original photo in order to "destroy" it, as he says. The original place and time of the photograph, the photographic reference, is digitally transformed by Brueck. The conventional reference to reality of the medium "photography" steps into the background or disappears completely in favour of the image, the original and its unfolding. The picture titles, e.g. "wouldn't it be nice", reinforce this aspect of the work, they have no connection with the photographic source material, and are chosen associatively by Brueck afterwards.
Text: Michael Reisch
Ralf Brueck: Aerobic, 2022, 128 x 103 cm
Ralf Brueck: CBS Desk, 2023, 50 x 40 cm
Ralf Brueck: Installation View: Italian Bungalow, American Bungalow, Museum Ratingen, Werkschau Ralf Brueck, Germany, 2022
Ralf Brueck: Installation View: Scope, CBS Lift, Wirtschaftswunder, Gallery Schierke Seinecke, Frankfurt, 2022
Ralf Brueck: Connected magenta, 2023, 120 x 94 cm, Connected bw, 2023, 120 x 94 cm
Ralf Brueck: Wouldn´t it be nice, 202 x 161cm, Digital C Print, Diasec, Frame, 2011
Ralf Brueck: Home sweet home, 160 x 213cm, Digital C Print, Diasec, Frame, 2015, Courtesy Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf
Ralf Brueck: Then I kissed her, 161 x 202cm, Digital C Print, Diasec, Frame, 2015, Courtesy Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf
Ralf Brueck: Just another nervous wreck, 288x149 cm, Digital C Print, Diasec, Frame, 2015, Courtesy Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf
Ralf Brueck: Warning, 60x50 cm, Digital C Print, Diasec, Frame, 2015, Courtesy Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf