He studied Art History at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and at Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.

After art school he worked as a commercial photographer. Camera work has long been part of his repertoire. In some series, photographic paper is drenched in black ink and exposed to light to create mottled surfaces. Stewen also works with pages taken from antiquated art catalogues, posters, confetti of all sizes and colors, streamers, book covers, and sometimes with industrial prefab wood or metal. Blotting with Indian ink, folding, embroidering, layering one kind of paper on another, printing or copying onto it. He combines the emergent work into ensembles, collages or mural sculptures that cautiously extend into the surrounding space.

During his scholarship at Villa Aurora Dirk Stewen would like to analyze the vegetation of the Californian West Coast. In an artistic way he compares the plants of his own cultural background and its “transplanting” to America. Questions like “What happens with art in exile?” and “In which way can aesthetic be an escape or a safety zone?” will lead him through cultural and natural landscapes.

Solo Exhibitions (Selection):

2011 Elfenbein, Galerie Karin Guenther, Hamburg
Dirk Stewen, Gerhardsen Gerner, Berlin
2010 Maureen Paley, London
2009 droplets, c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner, Berlin
Exercises, Overbeck Gesellschaft, Lübeck
Paper Eye Collection, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
2008 The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers 2.3: Dirk Stewen, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
2007 Pictures not lovers, c/o – Atle Gerhardsen, Berlin
Pictures, Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf

Group Exhibitions (Selection):

2011 The Anxiety of Photography, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
Wert / Sache, curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers, ex tip-Berlin-Shop, Tagesspiegel-Areal
2010 The Page, curated by John Stezaker and Matthew Higgs, Kimmerich, New York
2009 privat – Wuppertaler Sammler der Gegenwart, Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
2008 Wir nennen es Hamburg, Kunstverein Hamburg
Bookish, curated by Matt Packer, Lewis Glucksmann Gallery, Cork