Peter Piller

Peter Piller creates his artwork by gathering photographic images sourced from both print and digital media.

Biography of Peter Piller

Peter Piller was born in 1968 in Fritzlar, Germany. From 1993 to 2000, he attended the University of Fine Arts Hamburg and the University of Hamburg, where he delved into Fine Arts, Art Education, German Literature, and Geography.

Throughout his career, Peter Piller held many teaching positions. In 2005, he worked as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg, and from 2006 to 2018, he held the position of professor at the Hochschule für Grafik and Buchkunst in Leipzig. Since 2018 he has been working as a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Peter Piller has received various awards and grants, including the Grant Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (2002), Hamburg-City Grant (2003), Rubens Young Art Award from the City of Siegen (2003), Ars-Viva Contemporary Art Award from the Federation of German Industries (BDI) (2004), Edwin-Scharff Prize 2011 from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (2012), among others.

His recent solo exhibitions include "There are a couple of things that bother me" at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2023), "Loose Ends" at ProjecteSD in Barcelona (2022), "Unbestimmte Linien" at Kunstverein Ruhr in Essen (2022), and many more. 

Piller has also participated in group shows, including "The Collection" at Fahrbereitschaft Sammlung Haubrok in Berlin (2023), "Home Again" at Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin (2022), "Trilogy for the Neighwood: Birds/Trees/Air" at C834 in Corbusierhaus (2022), "When the Wind Blows" at KUNST HAUS WIEN (2021), among others.

Currently, the artist resides in Hamburg, Germany.

Peter Piller's Art Style

For years, Peter Piller has been immersed in a collection process that diverges from the conventional, yet remains firmly rooted in the mundane and familiar. He has curated his own "Archive," comprising thousands of meticulously clipped-out photographs. Piller categorizes his images according to self-defined criteria, meticulously examining them over extended periods to uncover visual or structural parallels.

In expansive installations, he then rearranges and combines these groups with his own inkjet reprints on the wall. His focus lies not on the aesthetic aspects of photography, but rather on the often non-professional and stereotypical language conveyed through the collected material.