From September 12th 2015, Magda Danysz Gallery presents an important retrospective of the Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. Very active on the international artistic scene since the beginning of the 90’s, this world recognized aesthete offers a vision of photography which mixes codes and times. His pictures are real icons in which he establishes the contemporary society’s portrait through sophisticated set ups.

Erwin Olaf has been a picture creator for more than 25 years. A master in the art of staging, he creates his own stages conjuring up a real atmosphere. // He creates true visual cases for his models which he raises to the rank of icon. By developing his characters in a narrative and dreamlike universe, Erwin Olaf disturbs our look. In his former series as Hope or Rain or in his more recently works, Erwin Olaf sculpts the light and by this way gives an original depth to his pictures.

Rewarded in Germany from 1988 of the first prize of the competition Young European Photographer for his series Chessmen where he already plays with his favorite concept of modern myth, Erwin Olaf is a real star today. In 2011, he wins the Johannes Vermeer’s Prize for the high quality of his whole work in photography. He exhibits in several museums through world, The Ludwig Museum of Köln, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Chelsea Art Museum in New-York City or the European House of Photography in Paris. In Netherlands, he’s also the official photographer of Princess Maxima.

This retrospective is the occasion to present Erwin Olaf’s work for the first time in China. Through a very rich selection of works of all periods, pieces of emblematic series as Royal Blood, Grief Dusk, or the more recent Berlin, Magda Danysz offers an exhaustive retrospective of a great beauty of the work of this virtuoso photographer. A unique occasion to discover an intense and very personal universe, a relevant and vigorous spirit which fascinates as far as it calls out.