# Wolfe von Lenkiewicz

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz is a British artist known for his artistic reconfigurations of well-known imageries from art history and visual culture to create ambiguous compositions that question art historical discourses. He lives and works in London.

## Early life and education

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz was born in Dartmoor, England, in October 1966 to Celia Norman and the British painter Robert Lenkiewicz. He is of German-Polish-Jewish descent, with his great-grandfather being Baron von Schlossberg, court painter to King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Lenkiewicz was educated at University of York, graduating in 1989 with a degree in Philosophy. Lenkiewicz studied contemporary epistemology under Marie McGinn, who is now the emeritus professor of philosophy York university. He was also tutored by Roger Woolhouse on John Locke.

## Artistic career

In the East End of London in 2002, Lenkiewicz founded T1+2 Art Space which he directed and curated as an independent artist run project for six years. The inaugural show being in Wheeler Street with Gustav Metzger titled, "100,000 Newspapers", a public active installation. Lenkiewicz also collaborated with Metzger on a conference titled, "World's First Congress of Fork Lift Trucks" at the Truman brewery. Invited were speakers Norman Rosenthal, directors of the Serpentine Gallery and curators including Hans Ulrich Obrist. Other notable shows included the Viennese Actionist Otto Muehl who were invited to exhibit paintings and films as well as contributing to talks. Artists shown at T1+2 read as a list of names from most of the generation that followed the YBAs in the East End.
Lenkiewicz exhibited 33 drawings including 3 large-scale works at his first major exhibition, Nu-Trinity, at Dickinson in 2007. Richard Dyer described the exhibition as 'an iconographic investigation into the power inherent in certain images and events, and the mythos associated with them'. Lenkiewicz’s works have since then been exhibited internationally, including Tate Britain and All Visual Arts in London, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, as well as in Dublin, Hamburg, Berlin and Venice.
Lenkiewicz was represented by All Visual Arts Gallery directed by Joe la Placa. He painted in a 19th century Roman studio for several months and completed a life size reinterpretation of Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa. After having left Italy, the monumental painting was exhibited at the London gallery AVA with the support of Michael Platt of BlueCrest Capital Management. In 2009, Lenkiewicz's solo exhibition titled The Descent of Man exhibited over 80 works in a former landmark bank building built originally by Arthur Beresford Pite in London. The space was sponsored by IVG Immobilien property group in order to enable the artist to work on a large scale with the relevant real estate and wall space for three years. Lenkiewicz then moved to a large studio in Grosvenor Place, Belgravia from 2016 until 2019, which was sponsored by Hammer Holdings where Lenkiewicz’s The School of Night was painted.
Lenkiewicz's works primarily deal with the appropriation of language and mythology by juxtaposing elements such as religious figures, pop culture icons, literary characters and motifs. Lenkiewicz's drawings and paintings often reference iconic imageries, including those by Albrecht Dürer, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Hieronymus Bosch. Lenkiewicz transforms Dürer's Self-Portrait (1500) in his Werewolf (2011), referencing Jacques Derrida's The Beast and the Sovereign.
His most recent solo exhibition, The School of Night, was held at the Saatchi Gallery in 2018, featuring several paintings and drawings, with the highlight being a vast 9 x 4 metre canvas. https://www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/wolfe_von_lenkiewicz__the_school_of_night

## Exhibitions

Upcoming exhibitions include Cranach: Artist and Innovator, a group exhibition to be shown at Compton Verney, March 2020. Lenkiewicz will also show at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm in February 2020 and the renowned Ateneum Museum, Finland in June 2020.

### Solo exhibitions

| Year | Exhibition |
| 2018 | The School of Night, Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2018 | Processions of Orpheus, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre, Moscow |
| 2016 | L'Oeuvre, House of the Nobleman, London |
| 2016 | Meta-History, Riflemaker Gallery, London |
| 2015 | Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: A Retrospective, Galerie Michael Haas/Mark Sanders Art Consultancy, Berlin |
| 2015 | Delirious Picasso, House of the Nobleman/Mark Sanders Art Consultancy, Academy Mansion, New York |
| 2014 | Algebra: The Reunion of Broken Parts, House of the Nobleman/Mark Sanders Art Consultancy, London |
| 2014 | Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: Paintings and Drawings, Galerie MIRO, Prague |
| 2014 | Snow White and the Knights of Schwangau, Riflemaker Gallery, London |
| 2013 | The Raft of the Medusa, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2012 | Hieronymus Bosch, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2011 | The Beast and the Sovereign, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin |
| 2011 | Liberation: Their Story Begins, Sebastian Guinness Gallery, Ireland |
| 2011 | I Have an Excellent Idea...Let's Change the Subject, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2010 | Victory Over the Sum, Triumph Gallery, Moscow |
| 2009 | The Descent of Man, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2008 | Nu-Trinity, Simon Dickinson, London |
| 2007 | Mutagenesis, Mimmo Scognamiglio Contemporary Art, Naples |
| 2007 | Mutagenesis, Paradise Row, London |
| 2007 | Emblematic Psychosis, Ingalls & Associates, Miami |
| 2001 | The Park, T1+2 Artspace, London |
| 2000 | Hangman, T1+2 Artspace, London |

### Selected group exhibitions

| Year | Exhibition |
| 2019 | Hommage a Leonard et a la Renaissance, Chateau du Rivau, France |
| 2018 | TEFAF Maastricht, Beck and Eggeling, Maastricht |
| 2018 | Strange Beauty, Beck and Eggeling, Dusseldorf |
| 2018 | Painting Still Alive, Galerie Michael Haas/Center for Contemporary Art, Turin |
| 2017 | Doing Identity: The Reydan Weiss Collection, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum |
| 2017 | Munich Highlights, Beck and Eggeling, Munich |
| 2017 | I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper, Griffin Gallery, London |
| 2016 | Forever, Bubox, Kortrijk, Belgium |
| 2016 | Persona, Musee Quai Branly, Paris |
| 2015 | Picasso in Contemporary Art, Wexner Centre for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio |
| 2015 | Picasso in Contemporary Art, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg |
| 2015 | The Remarkable Lightness of Being, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels |
| 2014 | Art Basel, Galerie Michael Haas, Basel |
| 2013 | Wonderful: Humboldt, Krokodil & Polke, Me Collectors Room, Berlin |
| 2013 | Viewing Room, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2013 | Between the Lines: A Group Drawing Show, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2012 | Memories of the Future, La Maison Rouge, Paris |
| 2012 | Metamorphosis, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2012 | Babel, Beaux Arts de Lille, Lille |
| 2012 | Everywhere and Nowhere, Villa Jauss, Obersdorf |
| 2011 | The House of the Nobleman, London |
| 2011 | Zwei Sammler, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg |
| 2010 | Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2010 | The House of the Nobleman, London |
| 2009 | The Age of the Marvellous, All Visual Arts, London |
| 2009 | The Embassy, 20 Hoxton Square Projects, London |
| 2007 | Avatar of Sacred Discontent, T1+2 Gallery, London |
| 2007 | Avatar of Sacred Discontent, Port Eliot LitFest, St Germans |
| 2006 | New Gothic, Tate Britain, London |
| 2006 | End of Civilisation, Port Eliot Castle, St Germans |
| 2006 | Great Eastern Hotel, Kristy Stubbs Gallery, London |
| 2005 | Go Between, Magazine 4, Kunstverein, Bregenz |
| 2003 | World's First Congress of Fork Lift Trucks, Atlantis Gallery, London |
| 2002 | 100,000 Newspapers: Gustav Metzger, Stewart Home, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, T1+2 Artspace, London |
| 1999 | The Constant of Variation, T1+2 Artspace, London |

### Upcoming exhibitions

| Year | Exhibition |
| 2021 | Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: Solo Exhibition, The Box Museum, Plymouth |
| 2020 | Iconic Works, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
| 2020 | Iconic Works, Ateneum Museum, Finland |
| 2020 | Cranach: Artist and Innovator, Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire |
| 2019 | Hortus, Colnaghi Gallery, London |