Berlin Metropolitan Area
Curator European Month of Photography Berlin and Independent Curator
Frank Wagner lives and works as an independent curator in Berlin. Curator of the German pavilion Dubai Photo Exhibition - A Global Perspective March 2016 The inaugural Dubai Photo Exhibition will bring together photo-based artworks from 23 countries, selected by 18 curators. In 2014 he was Curator of the Festival "European Month of Photography Berlin" - Germany's largest photo festival and has curated the show MemoryLab: The Sentimental Turn. Photography Challenges History at the Martin Gropius Bau. 2013/14 he conceived a retrospective view onto Art and AIDS Activism within the time period of 1985 until today titled "LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX (LARS)", which was presented as a sequential exhibition in three sections in Berlin at nGbK and the Kunstquartier Bethanien. LARS 3 - with students of 3 art schools (Kiel, Poznan, Berlin) In 2012 Frank Wagner curated a seminal exhibition about the work of Alfredo Jaar in Berlin "Alfredo Jaar - The way it is. An Aesthetics of Resistance" in three Berlin locations at the same time: Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlinische Galerie, and NGBK In 2006 he conceptualized an exhibition about Gender, Life, and Desire in the Visual Arts since 1960 with the title “The Eighth Square - Das achte Feld“ at Museum Ludwig, Cologne and in 2008 he presented at Cobra Museum Amsterdam a large scale queer group exhibition with the title “Gewoon anders” (Just different). He conceived a retrospective about Felix Gonzalez-Torres at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin in 2006. In 2003 the Berliner Akademie der Künste presented the large retrospective about the work of VALIE EXPORT, which he conceived and materialized together with Dr. Hildtrud Ebert. Numerous projects with Hanne Darboven, Cady Noland, Barbara Kruger, Marlene Dumas, David Wojnarowicz, Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Katharina Sieverding, Sanja Ivekovic, Vera Frenkel, Wolfgang Tillmans, Robert Gober, Yoko Ono, Ei Arakawa, Ida Applebroog, Hannah Wilke ...
November 16, 2013 - January 5, 2014: LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX 1 – Art AIDS Activism 1987 -1995, an exhibition with Jürgen Baldiga, Robert Beck, Uwe Boek, AA Bronson, Steven Evans, General Idea, Neil Goldberg, Nan Goldin, Gran Fury, Rinaldo Hopf, Doug Ischar, Peter Knoch, Piotr Nathan, Aron Neubert, Koni Nordmann, Martin von Ostrowski, Susi Pop, Hunter Reynolds, Aura Rosenberg, NGBK, Berlin, catalogue January 18 - March3, 2014: LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX II – Art AIDS Activsm 1995 until the present, NGBK, Berlin, An exhibition with Ei Arakawa, Bewegung NURR, AA Bronson, Ryan Brewer, Elmgreen & Dragset, Steven Evans, General Idea, Sunil Gupta, Leiko Ikemura, Doug Ischar, Dominik Lejman, Peter Knoch, Ono Ludwig, Piotr Nathan, SUSI POP, Irina Popova, Hunter Reynolds, Anna Charlotte Schmid, Pola Sieverding, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sergei Tcherepnin, Lorena Zilleruelo NGBK, Berlin February 15 -23, 2014: LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX III – Workspace, NGBK and Art Center Bethanien, Berlin, an exhibition with students from the Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel, University of Arts Berlin and University of Arts, Poznan (Universität der Künste Berlin: Walker Brengel, Ucha Janelidze ,Yuni Kim, Rona Kobel, Johanna Landscheidt, Rouven Materne, Zurab Sheqelashvili, Esther Sibiude; Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu: Grzegorz Bibro, Maria Dmitruk, Cristina Ferreira, Celina Kanunnikava, Ewa Kubiak, Magdalena Lara, Piotr Macha, Anita Mikas, Maryna Sakowska, Piotr Szpilski, Justyna Smidowicz; Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Kiel: Nadine Braun, Ying- Chih Chen, Jimok Choi, Ute Diez, Ina Gajewski, Stefanie Hillmer, Migiwa Kobayashi, Judith Kuhlmann, Tugba Özdemir, Ileana Pascalau, David Scheffler)
Memory Lab: The Sentimental Turn. Photography Challenges History. Central exhibition oft he 6th Month of Photograhy Berlin, a biennial photo festival in Berlin, Broomberg and Chanarin, Antoine d’Agata, Attila Floszmann, Vera Frenkel, Nan Goldin, Stephanie Kloss, Marko Lipus, Klaus Mettig, Andreas Mühe, Erwin Olaf, Trevor Paglen, Aura Rosenberg, Anna Charlotte Schmid, Tomáš Šoltýs, Nasan Tur, Pablo Zuleta-Zahr Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Catalogue
2012: (Juni 14 through September 17, 2012) „ALFREDO JAAR -THE WAY IT IS. AN AESTHETICS OF RESISTANCE“, decentralized art exhibition at three Berlin venues, simultaneously at NGBK, Berlinische Galerie, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin (with support by Capital Culture Fund, Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin, Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (Artists-in-Berlin-Program) and artEDU Foundation, Zurich); Catalogue authors: Lucy Lippard, Chantal Mouffe, Adriana Valdés, Christian Höller, Steffen Haug, Michaela Richter, Frank Wagner 2006/ 2007: „FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES – A Retrospective / eine Retrospektive“; Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart (a cooperation of NGBK and Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof with funds of Hauptstadtkulturfonds), catalogue (writers: Julie Ault, Gregor Stemmrich, Frank Wagner, Michael Wetzel, and others) 2003: VALIE EXPORT – MEDIALE ANAGRAMME, a retrospective of the seminal Austrian Artist in Berlin; NGBK Berlin at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, co- curated together with Dr. Hildtrud Ebert; catalogue, poster.
2011: (January 28 – April 03, 2011) gehen blühen fließen – Naturverhältnisse in der Kunst (Walking Blooming Flowing – Conditions of Nature in Contemporary Art). Stadtgalerie Kiel. Artists included: Dieter Appelt, Diane Borsato, Marcel Broodthaers, Donna Conlon, Dorothy Cross, Jef Geys, Stephanie Kloss, Peter Knoch, Jochen Lempert, Mary Lucier, Allan McCollum, Ulrike Mohr, Piotr Nathan, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Anna Oppermann, Jean Painlevé, Reynold Reynolds, Miron Schmückle, Eva-Maria Schön, Francesco Simeti, Nanae Suzuki, Jorinde Voigt, Franziska and Lois Weinberger, u.a.; Stadtgalerie Kiel (a cooperation of Stadtgalerie Kiel and Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel); catalogue, poster, leaflet