Ferdinand Ullrich

Ferdinand Ullrich, born in 1951 in Germany, is museum director of the Kunsthalle in Recklinghausen, Ruhr. He studied visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster (state examination and Meisterschüler). Studied art history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (PhD).

He curated several shows of modern and contemporary art: Jannis Kounellis, Per Kirkeby, Tadashi Kawamata, Arnulf Rainer, Raffael Rheinsberg, Katsura Funakoshi, David Nash, Barry Flanagan, Günther Förg, Leiko Ikemura, Bram Bogart, Timm Ulrichs, Konrad Klapheck, Magdalena Jetelová, Tatsuo Miyajima, Daniele Buetti, Tuomo Manninen, Maik und Dirk Löbbert.

He is teaching as honorary professor for art and public at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster.

In 2010 he curated an project for the Cultural Capital of Europe in the Ruhr: „Golden Village“ in the framework of „EMSCHERKUNST.2010 – An Island for the Arts“.

Ferdinand Ullrich is working on several fields of contemporary art – theoretical, curatorial and practical: object and graphic design, photography, art in public space.


The Helsinki project with the base on Suomenlinna was theoretically research about museology (museum standards, industry facilities as museum or gallery building, lightning, the ideal gallery for contemporary art) and art in public space (Archipelago in Turku for the Cultural Capital of Europe 2011). Practically there was a lot of chance for street photography in the light of the north.