Michael Najjar

Michael Najjar is a German photographer. He was born on 31 October 1966 in Landau, West Germany. Since 1988 he has lived and worked in Berlin. His work has been featured by the New York Times and he has been called a pioneer in the area of digital manipulation of photographic images.^[1][2]

From 1988 to 1993 he studied at the Bildo-Akademie für Kunst und Medien in Berlin, the first private art academy in Germany, where he learnt experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to the media of photography, video and computers. It was there that he first became acquainted with the work of the cultural theorists Jean Baudrillard, Vilém Flusser and Paul Virilio which exerted a major influence on his later creative output. He graduated in 1993 under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Born. The marked global outlook shown in his art is colored by his life and work in Brazil, Cuba, Spain, England, Japan and the USA.

Most of Najjar’s work is museums and private collections. In 2008 he was given his first mid-career retrospective at the GEM Museum for Contemporary Art and the Hague Museum of Photography.

In 2007 he married the art historian and gallery owner Dr. Sherin Najjar.

Selected exhibitions

2011

• ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany
• Museum Deichtorhallen, Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg, Germany
• Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
• Art Stations Foundation, Poznan, Poland
• CAC Malaga, Spain

2010

• CAC Malaga, Spain
• Biennial for Art and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
• TEA - Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Teneriffa, Spain

2009

• Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, USA
• New Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, Netherland
• Leopold Hösch Museum, Düren, Germany
• 5.Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, Darmstadt, Germany

2008

• GEM Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst / Fotomuseum Den Haag
• Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
• Museo Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Birmingham

2007

• FORMA_Centro_Internazionale_di_Fotografia, Mailand, Italy
• Kunstverein Heidelberg, Germany
• Museum Kunstwerk, Stuttgart, Germany

2006

• Cities, architecture and society, Venice Biennial - 10th international architecture exhibition, Italy
• 9. Biennale Havanna, Cuba
• Museo DA2 Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca
• Centre pour l'Image Contemporaine, Genf, Switzerland
• Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany

2005

• Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin, Germany
• Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
• National Museum of Science, Thaipeh, Taiwan
• Convergence Biennale, Peking, China

2004

• Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain
• Science Museum, London, UK
• Photokina, Köln, Germany

2003

• Deichtorhallen, Internationales Haus der Photographie, Hamburg, Germany
• Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany
• Museum Traphold, Kolding, Denmark

2002

• Kunsthalle Hamburg, Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburg, Germany
• Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

2000

• Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Forum Fotografie, Hamburg, Germany

1999

• Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany

1998

• Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Forum Fotografie, Hamburg, Germany

Work series

• high altitude, 2008–2010
• bionic angel, 2006–2008
• netropolis, 2003–2006
• no memory access, 2001–2005
• information and apocalypse, 2003
• end of sex.as we know it., 2002
• schnittbilder, 2001
• nexus project part I, 1999–2000
• Japanese style, 1999–2000
• ¡viva fidel! – journey into absurdity, 1997

Bibliography

• "Portraits in series - a century of photographs", exhib. cat., Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld, Germany, 2011
• "Identity, or on a variety of perseptives", exhib. cat., Poznan, Poland, 2011
• "Architektur in der kunst - architekturen des augenblicks", exhib. cat., Bahnitz, Germany, 2011
• "Les indices au sommet", tell me magazine, February 2011, Brussels, Belgium
• "Silver arrow", quest magazine, #45, Köln, Germany 2011
• "La valeur de la géographie", L´architecture d´aujourd´hui, Paris, France, 2010
• "100.000 years of beauty", Editions Babylone, Paris, France, 2010
• "Data flow 2",Die gestalten Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 2010
• "Beyond architecture. imaginative buildings and fictional cities", Die gestalten Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 2009
• "Michael Najjar - high altitude", European Photography, Berlin, Germany, 2009
• "Ah lord, love me passionately-images of bodies and religion", Lutz Teutloff Collection, Germany, 2009
• "Michael Najjar", Artinvestor - wie man erfolgreich in kunst investiert, Munich, Germany, 2008
• "Shaping the human: the new asthetic", Human futures: art in the age of uncertainty, Liverpool, uk, 2008
• "Augmented realities - Michael Najjar 1997-2008", Eikon, Vienna, Austria, 2008
• „Bionic Angel“, bitforms gallery, Galería Juan Silió, Michael Najjar, Berlin, 2008
• „Augmented Realities – Michael Najjar Works 1997–2008“, Veenman, Rotterdam
• „Information and Apocalypse”, Explorafoto y Fundación Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura Museum DA2 Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, 2007
• „Face - The new Photographic Portrait”, William Ewing, Thames & Hudson, London, 2006
• „9th Havana Biennial 2006”, Centro de Arte Contemporánea, Exhibition-Catalogue, Havana, 2006
• „Mascaradas Politicas”, Museo DA2 Domus Artium 2002, Exhibition-Catalogue, Salamanca, 2006
• „Netropolis”, bitforms gallery, Galería Juan Silió, Michael Najjar, Berlin, 2006
• „Traces and omens”, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Exhibition-Catalogue, Groningen, 2005
• „Japanese Style”, Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Michael Najjar, Berlin, 2005
• „The Beauty of Failure / the Failure of Beauty”, Harald Szeemann, Edictions de L’eixample, Exhibition-Catalogue, Barcelona, 2004
• „Future Face”, Sandra Kemp, Profile Books Ltd, Exhibition-Catalogue, London, 2004
• „A Clear Vision”, Hatje Cantz Verlag, International House of Photography, Exhibition-Catalogue, Hamburg, 2003
• „Reality-Check”, Triennale der Photographie Hamburg, Exhibition-Catalogue, Hamburg, 2002
• „Mythos St. Pauli – Photographien 1967 - 2002”, Dr. Gabriele Philipp, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Exhibition-Catalogue, Hamburg, 2002
• „Surreality”, Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 1997

References

1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/04/16/business/0418-BACKDROP_index.html
2. ^ http://www.photoq.nl/agenda/augmented-realities-1997-2008-van-michael-najjar-4356/ (Dutch)

External links

• Official website

Persondata
Name	Najjar, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1966
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death