Randolph H. Wolf
About Myself and my painting (momentarily)
In my work, images emerge from patterns created by reflections, textures, or traces on surfaces. They often resemble figures, faces, animals, or mythical beings – much like the shapes we see in clouds or Rorschach tests.
I am fascinated by how colors, lines, and the marks of time on materials can open up new worlds. I place forms and colors side by side without blending them, allowing contrasts, tensions, and subtle movements to arise – like a quiet dance on the canvas.
Each act of viewing is an individual process: images unfold in the viewer’s imagination, shaped by their own experiences and associations. In this way, every piece becomes a dialogue between painting and observer.
For me, art is an invitation to pause – to practice empathy, slow down time, and be moved.
I was born on August 17, 1950, in Columbus, Ohio. After high school, I studied at Ohio State University and the Columbus College of Art and Design until military service interrupted my schooling in 1969.
Following my time in the U.S. Army, I lived in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, traveling across the country and working in galleries while keeping journals of my impressions.
In 1972, I moved to Germany to learn the language, first in Ebersberg near Munich, then in Göttingen, where I studied medicine at the Georg-August University. I later worked as a physician in northern Germany before moving with my partner to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea in 2009.
In 2014 I married Olga Wolf, taking her family name, and since 2018 I have lived and worked in Zarrendorf, where I established my own studio after renovating a building behind our home.
I use various techniques, often combining them in a contemporary way: Acrylic und oil, blackboard paint, pastel chalk and pencils, ink, colored pencil, gold leaf and metal leaf, patinated and non-patinated silver and copper, gouache, silk screen, lithography on handmade paper and on canvas, acrylic glass and plywood.