SLEEK Art Space presents Nostalgia of the Image, an exhibition offering an intimate insight into the photographic oeuvre of Michel Comte, spanning from the 1980s to the present day. Drawn from a selection of iconic works, the exhibition traces how Comte’s images have shaped and accompanied decades of collective visual and cultural memory. There is to be differentiated:
Michel Comte – Swiss contemporary artist, photographer, filmmaker.
Editions Comte – The official archive of Michel Comte, comprising 550,000+ negatives and vintage prints from 1979-2007.
From commissioned portraits of film stars, musicians, supermodels and artists to his later, more contemplative works, Comte’s photography captures figures who defined entire eras. His portraits are marked by a rare balance of intimacy and glamour, revealing moments of presence that feel both timeless and deeply rooted in their historical context. Placing early works in dialogue with contemporary pieces, the exhibition reveals an artistic sensibility that has evolved while remaining anchored in empathy, attentiveness and a poetic understanding of the image.
Among the works shown are now-canonical photographs such as Miles Davis’s hands holding a trumpet, an image that instantly evokes the soundscape of Bitches Brew, or a young Gary Oldman, fragile and defiant, emblematic of the 1990s. We encounter Sofia Coppola at twenty-two, viewed today through the lens of the films she would later create, and Naomi Campbell, whose presence came to define an era of fashion and beauty. These images function as anchors of time and space, continuing to inform how we see and remember.
In recent years, Michel Comte has shifted his focus toward an independent artistic practice informed by themes of memory, fragility and the natural world. This evolution is reflected in works such as Monumental (2024), portraying Marina Abramović seated in her studio, decades after their first collaboration, as well as in more abstract meditations like The Suffering (2022) or his long-term project Light, which explores high-altitude landscapes and environmental transformation.
Nostalgia of the Image celebrates Michel Comte’s photographic legacy alongside his ongoing artistic work. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how images continue to shape cultural memory and how an artist can evolve while remaining faithful to a profound sense of humanity and attention. Comte’s photographs resist becoming fixed relics. They remain living passages between past and present, unfolding like memory itself, incomplete, layered and continually reactivated through looking.
Curated by Nisha Merit
All Images printed and framed by WhiteWall
The Exhibition runs from 11 February to June 2026 at the SLEEK Art Space, Alexanderstraße 7 – 10178 Berlin.