- Main
- Artists' works
- Matchstick men
Stiller Wolfgang
Wolfgang Stiller’s work balances a sometimes ambiguous form of social commentary with playfulness, dark humor, and technical virtuosity. His realistic matchstick men sculptures with tips which resemble life-sized, charred human heads, address ideas of death, mortality, and the sense of depersonalization and exhaustion associated with burnout, which is a satelite of the modern day tempo that seems to be even speeding up with the upcoming future.
Stiller though leaves their meaning open-ended, allowing the viewer free reign to form their own interpretation. The human head as the locus of psyche and personality is a central motif for Stiller, and recurs in wildly different and imaginative contexts across his oeuvre.
Born in 1961 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Wolfgang Stiller has been working as an artist for almost 40 years. He faced the fall of the Berlin Wall and the prime of popular culture in New York. Stiller is a contemporary multimedia artist, with his art works encompassing sculpture, drawing and installation, displaying a complicated but subtle interest in bodies and organisms, human and otherwise, via scale, subject and materiality. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, Stiller has lived and worked in United States, Turkey as well in Shanghai, China working as guest professor for NYU.
1981 – 84 Studium Kommunikationsdesign, GHS Wuppertal / Germany
1984 – 89 Freie Kunst Studium –Malerei und Sculpture “Kunstakademie Düsseldorf”, (Germany)
1996 – study in Istanbul (8 months), (Turkey)
2000 – 2007 lives in New York (USA)
2007 – 2008 Beijing (China) study
2007 – Gastprofessur NYU (New York University) in Shanghai, China
2009 – Lives in Berlin, Germany
Awards and scholarships
1986 ART Stiftung Plaas, (Germany)
1991 Kunst und Kirche Heilbronn, (Germany)
1991 Arbeitsstipendium, Senate Berlin, (Germany)
1991 Kunstpreis Sickingen, (Germany)
1993 Arbeitsstipendium, Tokyo, Japan
1996 Artist in Residence, Istanbul (Berliner Senate)
2000 ISP Studio, New York (USA)
2009 Kunstfonds Arbeitsstipendium
Solo exhibitions:
2023
Benjamin Eck Projects, München, Germany
2021
Miart Gallery London, UK
2020
Benjamin Eck Projects, München, Germany
2017
Mark Hachem gallery Beirut, Lebanon;
2016
Tändstickmuseum ,Janköpping, Sweden;
Mark Hachem gallery, Paris;
2015
Galerie Schmalfuss, Berlin;
2014
Galerie Albert Benamou – Veronique Maxé;
Yeni Cami, former archeolog. museum,Thessaloniki, Dimitria festival Greece
2013
Python Gallery ,Erlenbach, Zürich, Schweiz;
Art Issue Projects, Taipei, Taiwan;
Voss Kunstlag – Banksmidja, Voss, Norway;
Gallery Basement, Voss, Norway
2012
Mube,Skulpturenmuseum Sao Paulo, Brasilien;
Delloro Contemoporary Art gallery, Berlin;
Galeria Simon Nolte, Porto Colom,Mallorca, Spanien;
Pingpong Artspace, Taipei, Taiwan
2011
Kalos & Klio showroom in collaboration with Lola Nikolaou Gallery,Thessaloniki, GR;
2010
Kunstverein Gera, Germany.
Group shows:
2023
JUT Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2023
Bedford gallery (public art space) Walnut Creek, USA
2023
Chic evolution in Art, Ft. Lauderdale, USA
2023
Firetti Contemporary , Dubai, United ArabEmirates
2023
Minima gallery Mykonos, Greece
2022
Chic evolution in Art, Ft. Lauderdale, USA
2022
Minima gallery Mykonos, Greece
2019
Madison gallery San Diego,Solana beach,USA;
2018
Changwon sculpture biennale, Korea;
2017
„Verleihung der Narrenkappe „ Mact/Cact contemporary art museum Ticino, Bellinzona, Switzerland;
Gallery Lola Nikolaou,Thessaloniki, Greece;
2015
Python Gallery, Zürich Erlenbach. Schweitz;
Agalaus Kunstfestival, Voss, Norwegen;
Kulturfabrik Apolda, Apolda Germany;
Wuhan Fine Art Museum, Wuhan , China;
Hôtel de Gallifet/ artcenter, Aix en Provence, Frankreich;
Künstlerverein Walkmühle, Wiesbaden. Deutschland;
18 + festival, Cluj – Napoca, Rumänien;
Galerie Simon Nolte, Münster;
Nanjing 2nd international art festival, Nanjing, China.
Collections:
Wuhan museum of fine art, Wuhan, China;
Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Germany;
K.E.Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany;
Land Hessen, Germany;
Museum Bochum, Germany;
DASA Museum, Dortmund, Germany;
Museum Belden an Zee, Scheveningen, Netherland;
Kablanc fondacion Otazu, Navarra, Spain.