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André Gelpke was born in 1947 in Beienrode/Giffhorn (Germany) and lives in Zurich and Grattino (Italy). From 1969 until 1974 he studied under Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School of Design in Essen. After his studies in 1975 he founded, together with Rudi Meisel and Gerd Ludwig, a photo agency called Visum, which he withdrew from in 1978 in order to devote himself to his own artistic projects. From 1987 to 1990 Gelpke was guest lecturer at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences before moving to Switzerland in 1990. From 1990 until his retirement in April 2012, he was head of the Photography Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts where he deeply influenced a whole generation of students which include internationally renown artists like Olaf Breuning, Katrin Freisager, Goran Galic, Linus Bill, Shirana Shabahzi, Urs Fischer, Tayo Onorato and Nico Krebs. Auxiliary to his participation in many group exhibitions, Gelpke’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1977), the Museum Folkwang in Essen (1980), the Fotomuseum in the Munich Stadtmuseum (1981), the Pompidou Centre in Paris (1984), the Museum für Photographie Braunschweig (1986 and 1989), the FotoFest in Houston (1988), the Sprengel Museum Hannover (1990) as well as in various Goethe Institutes. His photographs are, amongst others, represented in the following collections: the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Museum Folkwang Essen, the National Library of France, the Munich Stadtmuseum, the Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, Hanover, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur.

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