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Philipp Haager
Showroom
Philipp Haager (*1974, Stuttgart) is a German painter known for his atmospheric, abstract pictorial spaces. From 1999 to 2004 he studied Fine Arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main under Christa Näher. His professors and mentors included Per Kirkeby, Hermann Nitsch, Thomas Bayrle, Ayşe Erkmen, Peter Angermann, and Wolfgang Tillmans. At the core of his practice is the use of ink on unprimed canvas. Through an elaborate process of layering, Haager creates pictorial spaces where emptiness and density, depth and surface continuously merge. He later expanded this technique with direct alla-prima gestures in gouache and watercolor.
Over the years, he has developed several bodies of work that highlight different facets of this approach. The Nearfield Paintings (since 2008) open atmospheric spaces with almost landscape-like qualities. The Deep Field Nebula Paintings (from 2015) respond to NASA’s Hubble Deep Field and reflect on the boundaries of the visible universe. The Bonsai Paintings (since 2008) are small-format works that combine spontaneity and painterly concentration on a miniature scale. His most recent Dome Paintings (since 2020) are inspired by architectural domes, opening the pictorial surface upwards: luminous, color-saturated corners contrast with often nearly empty centers that appear like windows into an invisible world. Haager’s artistic language stands in the tradition of European painting – from Giotto through Monet and Cézanne to Gotthard Graubner – while also drawing on the influences of Abstract Expressionism, Informel, Tachisme, Color Field painting, and Minimalism.
Over the past two decades, Haager has exhibited widely in institutions and galleries, including Städtische Galerie Ostfildern, Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Kestnergesellschaft Hannover, Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen, Kunstverein Böblingen, and Museum Biedermann, Donaueschingen, as well as internationally at Galeria Ehrhardt Florez (Madrid), Secci Gallery (Florence), and SPURS Gallery (Beijing). His work is represented in prestigious private and institutional collections.
