Franz Rheinhardt Wise, named after the Abstract Expressionist painters Franz Kline and Ad Reinhardt, was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1968.

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy (1992), Mr. Wise moved to Seattle, Washington where he worked as a set carpenter/set decorator on the television series Medicine Ball and the motion picture Free Willy II. In 1995, Mr. Wise moved to New York City where he continued his employment in the motion picture industry–he worked as a property master and as a set lighting technician on several independent productions–and in 1997, he wrote, produced, directed, and edited his first short film Digging Up The Earth, a satirical look at the New York art scene. Two years later, Mr. Wise joined The Metropolitan Opera Company where he built the sets for the productions of Verdi’s Nabucco and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.

In the year 2000, after the death of his mother, Baltimore artist Anne Dorothy Wade, Mr. Wise returned to Maryland and in the fall of that year, he enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program at St. John’s College in Annapolis. After graduating in 2002, Mr. Wise moved to Baltimore where he presented “Decade,” a solo exhibition of his artwork at the Gspot AVP, an art and performance space created by Reuben Kroiz and Jill Sell. In 2003, Mr. Wise returned to working in the motion picture industry–he worked as a set lighting technician on HBO’s The Wire, Ladder 49, and John Waters’ A Dirty Shame–and in January of 2004, he wrote, produced, and directed Pigeon Envy, a short film starring Emil G. Keller and Susan Lowe.

In 2005, Mr. Wise co-authored Enthralled, a feature length screenplay and in 2007/2008, Mr. Wise wrote, produced, directed, and edited Traum, a short film starring Martin Ewens and Emil G. Keller and co-starring Kris Eivers, Steve Hull, Verane Pick, Mattie Rogers, and Shelby Voice. In the fall of 2009, Mr. Wise wrote Cherchez La Femme, a feature length screenplay, designed and painted Das Wandgemälde, a 20' x 50' mural in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and edited Jules & Candy, a short film directed by Joseph Quirk.

Franz Rheinhardt Wise lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.













© 2012

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