©2019 Uwe von Loh
MARKUS LEHR (*1959) is a visual artist, photographer and curator based in Berlin, Germany.
Markus Lehr (*1959) is a visual artist, photographer and curator based in Berlin, Germany. He graduated in Communication from the University of Arts in Berlin and has been actively involved in photography and digital media ever since. Several notable international publications have featured his pictures. His work was published in three books in 2013, 2017 and 2018. The artist showcased his images at solo and group exhibitions in Germany, France, Italy, Holland and the UK. He lives and works in Berlin.
He is one of the few artists pioneering the convergence of photography and artificial intelligence (AI). Using AI as an active collaborator in the creative process, he navigates the tension between human intuition and computational possibility. In his 2023 solo exhibition, “Songs of Ghosts,” he unveiled this innovative approach, masterfully preserving the essence of his real-life photographs while simultaneously opening a new chapter in his artistic journey.
Among the artists who influenced him the most were Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Daidō Moriyama, Todd Hido, William Eggleston, and Edward Burtynsky,
but he was also deeply impressed by the films of Michelangelo Antonioni such as “Il deserto rosso” and “Blow up”.
Artist statement
“Despite the fact that there are rarely any people visible in my images, I think they are all about us.
There was a time in my life when I worked in a theatre. And that moment when everybody had left, and the stage was quiet and empty, was always the most inspiring one for me. The show was over, and the light was still directed on the stage, but nobody was watching it anymore.
What I am looking for in my work is just like that.”
Selected exhibitions and publications
Group exhibition with Hiroshi Sugimoto and 5 other international Artists: Theaters of absence, Blacklight gallery, Padua, Italy, May 31, 2024
North East South West – BEYOND THE WALL, Venice, Italy, October 07 – 22, 2023
Solo exhibition “Songs of ghosts”, Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, Berlin, September 02 – 21, 2023
ROME INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Medina Art Gallery, December 13 – 30, 2022
CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2022, Palazzo Bembo Oct 20 – November 10, 2022
VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Sept. 08 – 30, 2022
DE B-SIDE: “A visual quest for the backside of human presence”,
Visserhallen, Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, May 22 – July 17, 2022
Group exhibition with Edward Burtynsky and 20 other international Artists: “Another look at Man-Altered Landscape”,
Gallery Catherine et André Hug / PhotoSaintGermain, Paris, November 2021
“Fokus Berlin”, Kühlhaus, Berlin, October 2020
Exhibition with Grant Simon Rogers: Mise en scène, Atelier André Kirchner, Berlin, March – April 2020
Exhibition with Toru Ukai: Tokyo Meets Berlin – A Tale of Two Cities, LA CAMERA CHIARA, Berlin, August 2019
Solo exhibition “Occasionally surprising”, Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, Berlin, March 2019
Book release “China – Everything happens at the same time”, Berlin, November 2018
“Preparing for Darkness“, curated by Marianne Kapfer, Kühlhaus Berlin, May 2018
Solo exhibition: “China – Everything happens at the same time”, LA CAMERA CHIARA, Berlin, April 2018
Artist feature in the Chinese Lifestyle Magazine VISION, Beijing, March 2018
Camera Infinita, Lisbon, Portugal releases “Insomnia – Night Takes Berlin”, Photobook, June 2017
Reclaim Photography, Long Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, April 2016
Solo exhibition, McKinsey & Company, Inc., Munich, January 2016
Berlin photography, Gallery Carpentier, Berlin, January 2015
Notes from the rust belt, Series of pictures about the Ruhr area, June 2014
Fairytales and Nightingales, Photobook, December 2013
BEWAREXHIBIT, Paris, Group exhibition, October 2013
Publikumspreis of the German Architects federation, November 2012