Project title
Wolfgang Reinke
Object description

* 28 September 1942 in Reppen (Weststernberg)
 
German painter and graphic artist
 
Wolfgang Reinke's works exude dynamism and power, but also meditative silence together with the melancholy of existence and the passage of time. The representation of clouds, waves and rocks is a typical feature in his landscape paintings. Reflecting sources of light and unobtrusive colour accents often enhance the atmosphere and intensity of his work.
Wolfgang Reinke first worked as a still photographer in the DEFA Studio for Feature Films in Potsdam-Babelsberg. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig from 1970 to 1974, he worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Hirschburg (Vordarß). Together with his wife, the artist Vera Schwelgin, he had his first exhibition at Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop in 1978.In the early 1980s, in particular, Reinke’s artistic activities are focussed on East Berlin. He creates works of expressive stylistic elements, showing rhythm and dynamic of the big city, while reflecting, at the same time, the experience of life in the divided city. In 1986, the couple moves to West Berlin, where they live in the district of Kreuzberg and work freelance. Since 1990, Wolfgang Reinke spends periods of time every year on the Baltic Sea coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2004 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Schleswig-Holstein-House Studios, in the Hanseatic city of Rostock. The following year, he and his wife received an invitation from the Lithuanian Artists' Association to Nida (Curonian Spit) to attend the International Pleinair-Workshop.
Wolfgang Reinke participates regularly in solo and group exhibitions. His works are in private and public collections, in the Berlinische Gallery, in the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and in the Kunsthalle Rostock.