Candida Höfer was born in 1944 in Eberswalde, Germany. She was educated at the Düsseldorf Art Academy where she first studied film under Ole John and thereafter photography under Bernd and Hilla Becher. Candida Höfer’s work have been shown in solo exhibitions at museums such as Kunsthalle Basel, Kunsthalle Bern, Portikus in Frankfurt, and at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. In 2003, she represented (together with Martin Kippenberger) Germany at the Venice Biennial (Biennale di Venezia). In 2012, she took part in the renowned Dokumenta 11 exhibition at Kassel, Germany. The artist has been exhibiting at several of the world’s most important museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. Her works are now part of many private as well as museum collections throughout the world. She currently lives and works in Cologne, Germany.
Höfer specializes in large-format photographs of empty interiors and social spaces that capture the “psychology of social architecture”. Her photographs are taken from a classic straight-on frontal angle or seek a diagonal in the composition. She tends to shoot each action-less room from an elevated vantage point near one wall so that the far wall is centered within the resulting image. From her earliest creations, she has been interested in representing public spaces such as museums, libraries, national archives, or opera houses devoid of all human presence. Höfer’s imagery has consistently focused on these depopulated interiors since the 1980s. Höfer groups her photographs into series that have institutional themes as well as geographical ones, but the formal similarity among her images is their dominant organizing principle.
Matthew Liu Fine Arts is pleased to announce the opening of the first solo exhibition for Candida Höfer in Shanghai – “Light, Space and Order”, presenting a selection of her representative works in the recent decade. Viewer shall detect the amazing harmoniousness in between the interior space and the photographs. ”Interiors have a natural frame created by the space. In this space light is very important. Interiors provide structure and order, even if that order is sometimes difficult to detect. Interiors reflect beauty and character. Interiors are culture because they have been made by people for the use by people and those uses have left their marks on interiors. This becomes apparent in spaces that reflect specific cultural functions like libraries and museums. But it is also true for spaces that reflect representation such as palaces. Interiors are also often very complex. Photography provides the opportunity to calm these spaces and prepare them for contemplation.”
Matthew Liu Fine Arts cordially invites you to the opening of exhibition “Light, Space and Order: Candida Höfer Solo Exhibition” on 26th September 2014, and the artist will be attending the opening champagne reception for media from 3pm-5pm and for VIP preview from 5pm-8pm.
