Vera Lutter Biography and Artwork

Born 1960 Kaiserslautern, Germany

Vera Lutter was born in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1960. Since completing her photographic studies at both the Munich Art Academy and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, her work has been exhibited in major exhibitions worldwide, including the Kunsthalle, Basel, the Dia Center for the Arts, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Vera Lutter uses the camera obscura, the most basic photographic device, to render in massive form images that serve as faithful transcriptions of immense architectural spaces. The camera obscura was originally developed during the Renaissance as an aid in the recording of the visible world.

Vera Lutter is best known for monumental black-and-white photographs of cityscapes. Her unique silver gelatin prints are negatives made by transforming a room into a pinhole camera obscura chamber. Directly exposed, often over many hours, onto photosensitive paper, these vistas appear as solarized images, their ethereal platinum tones imbuing the scenes with a haunting melancholy. From an early concentration on the Manhattan skyline, Lutter has turned lately to more industrial sites, including a dry dock, a zeppelin factory, an airport runway, a marina and a deserted warehouse.

Select Timeline

• 1960 - Born in Kaiserslautern, Germany
• 1985-1991 - Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
• 1993-1995 - School of Visual Arts, New York
• 1997 - Bourse International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University, grant Project on Cities and Urban Knowledge
• 2001 - Guggenheim Fellowship

Select Exhibitions

• 2007 - Gagosian Gallery, New York
• 2005 - Nabisco Factory Beacon, Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, Beacon
• 2005 - The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth
• 2004 - Battersea, Gagosian Gallery, London (catalogue)
• 2004 - Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
• 2004 - Inside In, Kunsthaus Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (catalogue)
• 2003 - Gagosian Gallery, New York
• 2002 - Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
• 2002 - Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
• 2002 - Gagosian Gallery, New York
• 2001 - Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (with Hanspeter Hofmann) (catalogue)
• 2000 - Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
• 2000 - Barbara Flynn Gallery, Sydney
• 1999 - Time Traced (with Rodney Graham), Dia:Chelsea - Center for the Arts, New York
• 1999 - Roth Horowitz Gallery, New York (catalogue)
• 1998 - Wooster Gardens, New York
• 1996 - On New York, Wooster Gardens, New York
• 1995 Sight and Sense, Hypo Bank, New York (catalogue)
• 1992 - Insight, Storewindow installation, Art Association Munich
• 1992 - Galerie X, Munich

Select Artwork

• 545 8th Avenue, looking North - 1994
• North View, Old Ship - 1994
• Pepsi Cola, Long Island City, X - 1998
• Nabisco Factory, Beacon VI - 1999
• Zeppelin Friedrichshafen, I - 1999
• Kvaerner Shipyard, Rostock IX - 2000
• 135 LaSalle St., Chicago, IL - 2001
• 333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL - 2001
• Frankfurt Airport, VII - 2001
• Berlin, Holzmarktstrabe, VI - 2003
• Battersea Power Station, III - 2004
• Grace Building, II - 2005
• 155 West 66 Street, New York City, VII - 2005

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