Wolfgang Laib

Almost monk-like in his practice, Wolfgang Laib's work shows evidence of process, meditative, careful, systematic process, but not in a stifling, labored way. The pollen he collects speaks of the time it took to collect it, and how fleeting its existence in the gallery will be. This kind of meditative process was something I was engaged in with the long-exposure seascapes photos, but I don't think it translated into the image very much. Perhaps it was a bit of a technical trick that only people familiar with photography could really appreciate. I'd like the patient, slow-art aspects of my work to be more revealed/understandable.

Artist Biography
Wolfgang Laib was born on 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, Germany.
He began to study medicine in 1968 at the University of Tübingen and became a doctor in 1974.
Since then he has worked exclusively as an artist.
In 1975 he made his first milk stone; in 1977 he collected the first pollen, in 1983 he began his first works with rice. He has spent time in the Far East and in New York.
He lives in a small village in southern Germany.

"The notion that there is infinitude in the infinitesimal is beautifully manifest in Laib's spare but highly aesthetic practice."
Sean Kelly Gallery

"Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul."
George Bancroft, 1891, American historian and statesman

Link to an interview with the artist or a review

Another link to an interview with the artist

Link to gallery representing artist

Link to artist website