Antoine Wagner


Antoine Wagner is an American-French visual artist. He works between Woodstock, NY and Paris, France. Through a visual language drawn from nature his work refers to mythological narratives and the sublime.

Early life and education

Wagner was born in Evanston, Illinois. He graduated from Northwestern University, Illinois, and Sciences Po, Paris, France, with a double bachelor's degree in Theatre and Political Science in 2005.
He continued his education in film at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2007.

Artwork

Wagner's medium include video, sound, sculpture, performance and photography, which he exhibits through installations, site-specific projects, film, monumental photography and opera. Through the visual language of nature, his work references music, mythology and the romantic.
Wagner's multifaceted practice has created an entire visual language to engage the audience  in communicating with nature. Abstract unseen anthropomorphic shapes found in nature and minerals are the main actors of this world of mythologies and cyclical redundancies. Through different medium and projects, the artist examines the themes of identity, geography and spirituality and offers to the viewer an escape from traditional geographic and artistic boundaries.
Through his exhibitions including Exil, Kundry, Wagner applied his experience in the moving image to photography, exploring the possibilities of narrative in a silent and motionless environment through large-scale abstract photography.
In 2018, Wagner directed Act II of the Opera Die Walkure at Frank Gehry’s New World Center in Miami.
Wagner’s site-specific multimedia installation Sentimental Analysis is a response to the legend of Ara the Beautiful at The National Gallery of Armenia.

Early work

In 2006, Wagner assisted director Michael Haneke on Funny Games.
After his first site specific installation Liszraumin in Raiding, Austria in 2007 he directed a series of videos and documentaries exploring visual inspiration in music. His film From a Mess to the Masses reveals the genesis of visual creation of the band Phoenix.
Wagner: A genius in Exile is a documentary revealing the landscapes that influenced Richard Wagner during his Swiss exile.
In 2013, VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst published Wagner in der Schweiz, a photographic essay exploring Richard Wagner’s inspiration during his forced journey from Germany to Switzerland after the 1848 revolution. It was awarded the 2013 Prix de l'Académie Lyrique Pierre Bergé in Paris.

Exhibitions

Wagner's work is part of the permanent collections of the Collection Lambert, Paris, The Collection Hermes, and the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Filmography

Wagner assisted director Michael Haneke on his American remake of Funny Games in 2007.
In 2011, Wagner directed the film From a Mess to the Masses featuring the band Phoenix. The film was commissioned by Arte and first broadcast in 2011.
Wagner has directed videos featuring Julien David, Phoenix, Vanessa Paradis, Johnny Halliday, Kate Moss, Maria Korchetkova, and Spank Rock.
Wagner has also worked as a cinematographer.

Residencies

Wagner has completed residencies at Robert Wilson’s Byrd Hoffman Watermill Center, NY, and at The Villa Medici, Rome.

Publications

Wagner, is the great-great-grandson of German composer Richard Wagner, and great-great-great-grandson of Franz Liszt. He is also the great-great-great grandson of author Marie D'agoult.