Thomas Zika

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Thomas Zika (* 1963 in Haan ) is a German photographer .

Life

Thomas Zika studied photography at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences , communication design at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and fine arts at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna . He has been working as a freelance photographer and artist since 1992. Zika has been teaching photography and art as part of teaching assignments at the University of Wuppertal, Ecosign Academy for Design in Cologne, and the Free Academy of Fine Arts in Essen since 2001. He was appointed to the German Photographic Academy DFA. His work has been awarded various national and international prizes and grants. Zika lives and works in Essen .

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The focus of his artistic interest lies in the intermedia reflection of the conditions of our perception of reality. In artist books and exhibitions, he has examined models of perception and explanation of the world with various visual concepts and imagery. Conceptual and experimental strategies for finding images have always played a major role in his artistic projects. His approach is based on an intensive preoccupation with historical and media-theoretical positions.

He uses the term placebo as a metaphor for the relationship to images and for the relationship between images and the real world. He compares the illusory effect of the drug with the illusory effect of the photographic image. This blind spot at the interface between concrete and abstract is his photographic-artistic work; by introducing visual information to non-information, he creates oscillation figures that refer to something outside of the pure image. He also exemplifies this process in the process of the artistic appropriation of already medialized images: re-photographed, further processed, images presented in new contexts are detached from their conventional content and gain new meaning in media-reflective contexts.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selection):

  • Galerie Neii Licht, Dudelange , Luxembourg
  • Artists' Association Malkasten , Düsseldorf,
  • Gallery Poller, Frankfurt,
  • Goethe Institute, Brussels,
  • Gallery Van Kranendonk, The Hague,
  • Gallery Obrist, Essen,
  • Edward Cella Gallery, Los Angeles.

Major group exhibitions (selection):

  • “Quinze en Europe”, Theater de la photography et de l'image, Nice;
  • “Unsolid icons”, Goethe-Institut, Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
  • “Laureats of Program Mosaique”, Month of Photography, Bratislava;
  • “Naturae”, Kunsthaus Essen ;
  • "Images against war", Galerie Lichtblick, Cologne;
  • “De l'Europe”, Aciérie Dudelange, Luxembourg;
  • "Transforming Photography", Edward Cella Gallery, Los Angeles

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zika, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Haan