Ralph Tepel (born 1 March 1964) is a German artist. He works as a fine art photographer, painter, sculptor and as a sound performance artist.

Life

Tepel was born on 1 March 1964 in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...

. He started painting, drawing and sculpturing in his childhood and youth. In school he found a catalyzer in his art teacher. 1983 he got his university entrance diploma at Wilhelm-Döpfeld-Gymnasium. He studied

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

and

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

at the universities of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. From 1995 to 1997 he studied as a master scholar with Professor Alfons Engling, after his return from

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil to

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Germany. In 1995 he became acquainted with

Helmut Tollmann Helmut G. Tollmann born 1945 in Cologne, is a German artist, working now for about 50 years as a photographer, painter, performance and large screen multi-vision artist. He finished the training as a graphics designer in 1964. Subsequently, h ...

and was working at his studio from 1998 to 2006 as an assistant and collaborator. The multi-layer work of Helmut Tollmann integrating techniques from print and

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

to painting had a strong influence on Ralph Tepels artwork until today.

Work

Focus photography 1986–2012

Ralph Tepel was as a fine art photographer several years member of the American Society of Picture Professionals and the Adobe Photographers Directory. An article on Ralph Tepel and his work was published in Künstlerische Fotografie heute, Band 1 (Fine art photography today, Volume 1). In the years 2007 and 2008 he was living and working in Calgary, Alberta. A lot of new artworks were originated. Photographs from more than one decade culminated in the "inspired by music" – project, shown in an exhibition and published in an art book.

Faces of constitutional law and the presidential project 2004–2008

Since Ralph Tepel had created a series of paintings of the men and women of the Parliamentary Council under the exhibition title "faces of constitutional law", Christian Kiefer invited him to take part in the music and art Presidential Project " Of great and mortal men" of J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher with the portrait of Richard Nixon.

Liberty as a guiding theme 2009–2014

After moving his studio from Cologne to Solingen, he was looking for new forms of expression always with the guiding theme liberty and freedom. The political implications of his painting and sculpturing focused on the loss of liberty through digitization and economization of the society. These works were shown at the Kornelius gallery at the beginning of 2015.

Myth Game 2015

The death of his father and his own severe accident were profound experience that changed his vision of the world and his artwork eradicative. He dealt intensely with the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and met with a completely new Expression of his own, that led him to the Myth Game in appeal to Ludwig Wittgenstein and Roland Barthes, the "Sprachspiel" (language game) and "the everyday myth".

Superimposition or the modern palimpsest 2017

Playing with layers and information led him to his new "playground" the extinction of information by superimposition. Working with a lot of new techniques like laminating, sanding image layers, framing and edging image information layers.

Selected exhibitions

* 2005 soul landscapes, solo exhibition, Thessaloniki * 2006 icons of humanity, HYPE Gallery, Berlin; * 2006 ralph tepel photographs, solo exhibition, Sani * 2007 art of object, Calgary * 2008 artwork Richard Nixon for " of great and mortal men", USA * 2008 inspired by music, solo exhibition and book, Calgary * 2009 5th Street Gallery, Dayton, OH, USA * 2009 Art meets Carnival, Cologne, Germany * 2010 gallery sanssouci, fluidum, Solingen, Germany * 2010 Nature and Man, International Art Exhibition, St. Andreasberg, Germany * 2010 alles paletti, Solingen, Germany * 2014 colors of fall, gallery Rhineland, Solingen * 2014 10. ways to plainness, Schloss Mitsuko, Todendorf, Germany * 2015 the thoughts are free, Kornelius gallery, Aachen, Germany * 2015 open studio exhibition: "entire life on a computer chip", culture morning, Solingen * 2015 producer, assistant editor and composer "panta rei" by Helmut Tollmann, K.U.L.T., Bedburg * 2015 Wege zur Schlichtheit 11 MUGA (Selbstvergessenheit) – 第11回簡素への彷徨展, group exhibition, Schloss Mitsuko, Todendorf * 2015 Ralph Tepel: myth games – the encounter, solo exhibition, k1-gallery, Solingen * 2015 Literature illuminated – four installations at Festival of Light 2015, solo exhibition at the Bachtor-Centrum, Solingen * 2015 KUNST ist immer ein Geschenk – group Exhibition, k1 gallery, Solingen * 2016 Ralph Tepel: West-östlicher Divan, solo exhibition, k1-gallery, Solingen * 2016 Wege zur Schlichtheit 12 Toki no Nagare – Fließende Zeit, group exhibition, Schloss Mitsuko, Todendorf * 2017 Kunst und Gegenwart, 80 Galerie, group exhibition, Berlin, Germany * 2017 Wege zur Schlichtheit 13 Fragilität des Daseins, group exhibition, Schloss Mitsuko, Todendorf * 2017 Ralph Tepel – Malerei, Bildhauerei, Installationen, solo exhibition, galerie dr. jochim, CelleCatalogue Ralph Tepel, Malerei, Bildhauerei, Installationen with preface of the gallery owner dr. jochim and essays of Ümit Marangoz, M.A. and Prof.Dr. Turkan Erdem * 2017 Ralph Tepel – sculptures, k1 gallery, solo exhibition, Solingen

References

External links

*
website Ralph Tepel faces of constitutional law

Official website Of great and mortal men

Aachener Nachrichten, Newspaper Aachen March 5th, 2015

Peripheral ARTeries art review, special summer issue July 2015, pages 4-18

Catalogue k1 gallery 2015/16 west eastern divan exhibition by Ralph Tepel 2016

Catalogue Fluidum 2010

Catalogue no liberty island 2015, k1 edition, Cologne, Solingen, Ankara 2017

Catalogue Ralph Tepel Malerei, Skulpturen, Installation gallery dr. jochim Celle, k1 edition Cologne, Solingen, Ankara 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tepel, Ralph 1964 births Living people 20th-century German painters German male painters 21st-century German painters 21st-century German sculptors 21st-century German male artists 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors Fine art photographers