Dorothea Reese-Heim

Dorothea Reese-Heim

Born 1943 in Sindelfingen, Germany.

Lives and works in Munich, Germany.

Dorothea Reese-Heim started her studies in the city Karlsruhe (1964) later continuing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich where she received a ‘Diplom’ degree in 1972. Reese-Heim has established a unique visual language and system of expression in a career spanning over half a century. The artist's astute knowledge of classical art history fuels her creativity, material innovation and abundant techniques which also lends her art a sense of timelessness. The body, space, the interactions presented by the lines, the internalization and the extension, achieve a dynamic balance in her works and continue to spark new conversations. The concept is motivated by its physicality, the composition exposes the transparency of the object which, in turn, reveals the freedom that is formed and can be found in the limitation. The only limit is the viewer's imagination; her works intuitively arouse the individual's observation and association with the self and the material world. Her outstanding Oeuvre includes large-scale installation made of mixed materials such as PVC, the series of installations made of custom paper, the small set of book installations, lighting installations, and drawings. The works of Dorothea Reese-Heim traverse between transparent installations of technical, industrial textiles and drawings, which focus on the dynamics of line, form and physical space which illustrate the contrasting tension between inside and outside.

Reese-Heim has been a professor at the University of Paderborn since 1983. In 1995, she was appointed the dean of FB 4 of the University of Paderborn. Since 2006, Reese-Heim has served as vice dean of the faculty of cultural studies. Reese-Heim has exhibited internationally, throughout Germany, and has had various museum\institutional shows in Denmark, and Japan. She has received numerous awards including the ‘Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland’.