Elke Seeger has been teaching as a professor of photography and conception since 1999, first at the University of Duisburg-Essen and since 2007 at the Folkwang University of the Arts. Since 2017 she has also been acting as Deputy Rector for Studies and Teaching. She made her first artistic experiences at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the Free Graphics class. From 1986 to 1991 she studied free graphics and photography at the University of Essen and finished her studies with distinction. Elke Seeger has been working as a freelance photographer and artist since 1992. Initially, she focused on applied contexts, but in her artistic practice, she turned more and more to photography. Her works are represented in the collection of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the German Bundestag Art Collection, among others. She is also a member of the German Photographic Academy and the Association of Photographers London.
Arbeitsschwerpunkte
In the first years of her studies Elke Seeger turned to free graphic design. She created her first abstract works in the field of painting on paper, later on canvas, prints, woodcut and lithography. With her studies in Essen she changed to photography. Through a radical and consequent handling of selected set pieces of reality–mainly from nature–she creates further abstracting picture results. In the course of this process of abstraction, Elke Seeger increasingly deals with image generation and with transformational processes of the medium of photography. Aesthetic experiments with materiality, form, color and structure determine her artistic form. The basic conditions of seeing and perceiving, translated into light, space and time, as well as the question of the limits of representationalism form her themes. Beyond the media questioning, references to musical composition and sound are sought.
Ausstellungen
(Auswahl): Auslöser. Professionelle Fotografie aus Düsseldorf im Hafen (in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Gruppe) ● L’ârt gourmand (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln, 1997, Gruppe) ● Konstruktionen der Bilder (Städtische Galerie Leinfelden Echterdingen, 1998, Gruppe) ● The 17th Awards (Association Gallery, London, 2000, Gruppe) ● Portfolio (Association Gallery, London, 2001, Gruppe) ● Kunsttag (Universität Essen, Europahaus, Essen, 2003, Solo) ● Elke Seeger (Frauenmuseum, Bonn, 2004, Solo) ● Kunst im Dialog (Institut für bildnerisches Denken, Grenzach-Wyhlen, 2007, Gruppe) ● Elke Seeger (Galerie Simple Gstaad, Schweiz, 2007, Solo) ● trans/gen (Mischanlage Kokerei Welterbe Zollverein Areal C, Essen, 2009, Gruppe) ● CIVIC. The First International Festival of Billboard Art (Sunderland, England, 2011, Gruppe) ● Elke Seeger (Städtische Galerie Schloss Borbeck, Essen, 2013, Solo) ● Der Punkt, an dem das Bild an das Reale rührt (SANAA-Gebäude, Essen, 2018, Gruppe).
Publikationen
Bücher und Katalogbeiträge (Auswahl): Bildklänge-Lichtwellen (Essen 2003) ● Papier im Detail betrachtet. In: kritische berichte Heft 1 (2015) ● Reset the Apparatus! A Survey of the Photographic and the Filmic in Contemporary Art (Wien 2019).
Herausgegeben (Auswahl): KO(R)RELATION. Ort-Objekt-Detail (2010) ● Fotografien im Vorübergehen: Anmerkungen zum Fotoprojekt Augen-Blicke (2011, gemeinsam mit Gisela Bullacher) ● Pumpraum – Kunstbetrieb (2013) ● WA XVI. Folkwang Studierenden im Krupp-Archiv (2015) ● Atelier der Erinnerung. Aspekte des Archivarischen als Ausgangspunkt künstlerischer Fotografie (2015, in Kooperation mit der Wüstenrot Stiftung) ● Der Punkt, an dem das Bild an das Reale rührt (2018) ● Junge Kunst aus Nordrhein-Westfalen. Fotografie (2018, Jahreskalender in Kooperation mit der Staatskanzlei der Landes NRW).