Studio Michael Najjar
Wilhelm-Kabus-Strasse 42/44, Haus 6.1
10829 Berlin
Germany

phone: +49 (0)30 210 182 86
mail: studio@michaelnajjar.com

↓ Download CV

born 1966 in Landau, Germany
lives and works in Berlin, Germany

1988 -1993 Bildo Academy, Berlin, Germany
graduated in Photography / New Media Art

lived and worked in
2024 Melbourne, Australia
2008 London, UK
2003 New York, USA
1999 Tokyo, Japan
1996 Havana, Cuba
1992 Madrid, Spain
1990 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Michael Najjar | Biography

↓ Download Biogaphy

Michael Najjar (b.1966, in Germany) is an internationally renowned artist, explorer and future astronaut. His work spans photography, video, digital image-making, sculpture and writing. He is known for working closely at the intersection of art, science, and technology, dealing in complex and critical ways with the technological developments that are defining and drastically changing the early 21st century.

In 1993, Najjar graduated from the Berlin bildo Academy of Media Arts. Throughout his entire career, he has explored the potential of the technical image by subjecting it to a constant reconstruction of time and space, placing the relationship between reality and simulation at the center of his image constructions. His large-format hybrid photographic works and immersive videos are generated from a highly complex digital collage of various elements and image sources, unfolding their visionary power through both their captivating aesthetics and conceptual profoundness. Najjar creates pictures that think beyond what the eye can see.
Najjar’s works are grouped in thematic series. His extensive body of work addresses the challenges, and the possibilities, that rapid technological transformation has imposed on humanity. Transformation of global megacities through increasingly dense information networks, the alteration of the human body by means of biogenetic interventions, the virtualization of financial markets through intelligent algorithms, the influence of the latest space technologies on our future in space, and our planetary future in times of climate change and geoengineering. Najjar’s multidimensional practice frequently leads him to cross-field collaborations with scientists, researchers, and engineers.

The performative aspect has also become a fundamental part of Najjar’s work process. For decades now, Najjar has undertaken journeys and expeditions around the globe. His projects often stem from remote fieldwork in liminal locations, often difficult to access. He has climbed seven-thousand-metre-high peaks, scaled skyscrapers, trekked on erupting volcanoes, crossed glaciers, descended into ice caves, traversed deserts, taken comprehensive astronaut training, and intends to be the first artist to fly into space. To create his images, Najjar exposes his body to extreme experiences and tests his mental and physical limits in the context of highly complex natural or technological environments.

In the last 25 years, Najjar’s work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide, including: Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Kunsthalle Hamburg / Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburg; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Marta Herford; Edith Russ Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg; Ars Electronica Center, Linz; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Saatchi Gallery, London; Science Museum, London; Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Geneva; Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona; Fundación La Caixa, Madrid & Barcelona; Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Málaga; Museo Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca; Museo DA2 (Domus Artium 2002), Salamanca; 9th Havana Biennale, Havana; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Tampere Art Museum, Tampere; New Media Art Institute, Amsterdam; GEM Museum of Contemporary Art , The Hague; 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice; FORMA International Centre for Photography, Milan; 7th International Moscow Biennale, Moscow; Museum of Art, Tucson; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa; National Air and Space Museum, Washington; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Museum of Science, Taipei; Jut Art Museum, Taipei; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; ZheJiang Art Museum, Hangzhou; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing; ArtScience Museum, Singapore; and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide, as well as in corporate and private collections. Numerous international publications are dedicated to his work.

MUSEUM + INSTITUTIONS (SELECTION)

  • Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
  • ZKM – Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
  • Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
  • Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany
  • Museum Kunstwerk, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
  • CAC - Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Málaga, Spain
  • Museo Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  • Museo de Bellas Artes, Santander, Spain
  • Fundació Coff, San Sebastián, Spain
  • Museo DA2.domusartium2000, Salamanca, Spain
  • TEA – Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife, Spain
  • Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA), Luxembourg
  • Gemeente Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Stichting Avivia, Reeuwijk, The Netherlands
  • Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland
  • National Air & Space Museum, Washington D.C., USA
  • Australian China Art Foundation, Melbourne, Australia

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)

  • Absolut Research GmbH, Hamburg, Germany
  • Aengelvelt Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Avesco Financial Services AG, Berlin, Germany
  • BHO | Legal, Cologne, Germany
  • Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Eschborn, Germany
  • Klingsöhr GmbH, Berlin, Germany
  • McKinsey & Company, Frankfurt, Germany
  • OHB, Bremen, Germany
  • Schneider Geiwitz, Ulm, Germany
  • Sony Collection, Cologne, Germany
  • MT Aerospace Collection, Augsburg, Germany
  • Wemhöner Collection, Herford, Germany
  • Wittenstein AG, Igersheim, Germany
  • Colleción Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
  • Colleción Bankia, Madrid, Spain
  • Kameha Group, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Precipart SA, Lyss, Switzerland
  • Otto Beisheim Collection, Baar, Switzerland
  • Sofina Collection, Brussels, Belgium
  • Uni Credito Collection, Milano, Italy
  • Norman Foster Collection, London, UK
  • Moveo Art Collection, Reeuwijk, The Netherlands
  • Hillsdale Investment Management Inc., Toronto, Canada
  • Balyasny Asset Management, New York, USA
  • Fidelity Investments, Boston, USA
  • Hellman & Friedman, New York, USA
  • Hogan & Hartson Collection, New York, USA
  • IBM Collection, New York, USA
  • Progressive Collection, Ohio, USA
  • Sprint Collection, Kansas City, USA
  • Sysco Collection, Houston, USA
  • Baker McKenzie, Shanghai, China

Imprint

Personally liable:
Michael Najjar

Design concept & coding: Matthias Hübner, possible.is
with support by Marco Land

Disclaimer
Accountability for content
The contents of our pages have been created with the utmost care. However, we cannot guarantee the contents' accuracy, completeness or topicality. According to statutory provisions, we are furthermore responsible for our own content on these web pages. In this context, please note that we are accordingly not obliged to monitor merely the transmitted or saved information of third parties, or investigate circumstances pointing to illegal activity. Our obligations to remove or block the use of information under generally applicable laws remain unaffected by this as per §§ 8 to 10 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

Accountability for links
Responsibility for the content of external links (to web pages of third parties) lies solely with the operators of the linked pages. No violations were evident to us at the time of linking. Should any legal infringement become known to us, we will remove the respective link immediately.

Copyright
Our web pages and their contents are subject to German copyright law. Unless expressly permitted by law (§ 44a et seq. of the copyright law), every form of utilizing, reproducing or processing works subject to copyright protection on our web pages requires the prior consent of the respective owner of the rights. Unauthorized utilization of copyrighted works is punishable (§ 106 of the copyright law).

Our newsletter

With our newsletter we inform you about us and our offers and events, art fair participations and exhibitions in galleries, museums and art institutions. If you register for our newsletter, we will save your e-mail address, first name(s) and last name, as well as any information you choose to provide on a purely voluntary basis. If you do not wish to consent to this, you can unsubscribe by using the link at the end of every newsletter.

You can revoke your consent to the storage of your data, e-mail address and the use of your data to send the newsletter at any time. This revocation can be effected by notifying us: studio@michaelnajjar.com

In the course of the further development of our website, changes to this privacy policy may become necessary. We therefore recommend that you reread this data protection statement from time to time.