bio

Detlef Günther


How do we recognize coherence and cohesion when all the limitations, all the categorizations,
all the codes and abbreviations only point to a fraction of who and what we are?
DG

Detlef Günther is an artist who uses a variety of media codes and is able to express himself in them: in that of paintings and drawings, collages, objects and installations, photographs, video works, and multimedia environments. … Ideally speaking, Günther’s works are about balancing two kinds of boundaries: the boundary between the analog and the digital on the one hand, and between the visible and the invisible on the other. (Christian Kupke)

After studying humanities and communication sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and the Free University of Berlin (Master’s Degree: M. A.) Detlef Günther studied fine art at the UdK from 1984 to 1990 (Master’s Degree). At the same time he founded the group BOR with the artists Martin Assig, Klaus Hoefs, Oliver Öfelein and Jochen Stenschke. As a freelance artist, Günther worked in the 1990s on the research project “Technical Vision” at the Medieninstitut Berlin (headed by Prof. Dr. Arthur Engelbert). In 1997, he founded “Twosuns Media Development GmbH” and developed the interactive environment system “Enclued” in connection with a new type of camera procedure that records people’s movements in space in three dimensions. Both innovations have been patented by the German and European Patent Office.

Detlef Günther has appeared since the late 1980s with about 50 solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, e. g. at the Haus der Kunst München, Gemeente Museum Helmond (NL), Galerie Kremer-Tengelmann (Cologne/Gelsenkirchen), NGBK Berlin. On behalf of companies and institutions such as Sony Deutschland, Festspielhaus Hellerau, HKW, Canon ArtLab in Tokyo and the artist Carsten Nicolai|Marko Peljhan (project: Polar – Goldene Nica 2001, performed with the enclued IEP workbench) he has also realized various media projects and installations. Since 2008 Detlef Günther has been holding lectures and seminars on “Genealogy of Image and Imaging Formats in Art and Science” at colleges and universities.

Detlef Günther’s works are represented in the Artmuseum Gelsenkirchen, Deutsche Bank Art Collection (Frankfurt), EON Art Collection, Ruth and Karl Kremer Collection (NRW) and Museo degli Angeli (Brolo-Sicily). He lives and works in Berlin.