6 ½ Weeks – Tobias Spichtig

Tobias Spichtig’s artistic practice is based on the direct experience of the material. I’m afraid I don’t know how to explain all this. is the first presentation of the artist’s work in a museum and assembles both new and existing works. The constellations put together by Spichtig represent a dramaturgy of things which can be physical, digital or verbal in origin. Painting, sculpture and performance merge into a single oeuvre. In its execution in terms of materials, shapes and gestures, the artist’s work reveals a pragmatism that is a reaction to the situational circumstances of his direct environment. The motifs in Spichtig’s pictures – for example, sunglasses enlarged to monumental proportions – reference, amongst other things, the codes of popular culture prevalent in the 1990s, but cannot, however, be placed either in a specific media context or in terms of content. They reflect, not least, the strategies and structures of Spichtig’s own network, which is anchored in the worlds of art, music and fashion. Their references to everyday life, to communication and to both the public and the intimate spheres are sometimes modified by exaggeration or oversizing, which changes the way they are perceived. A theatre of material is created. Seated on used sofas, assembled via eBay, in front of large-format paintings – vinyl prints of digital photos and oil on unprimed canvas – the viewer can immerse himself in the presence of the material.
 
Tobias Spichtig (born in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1982) lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. To date his oeuvre, which comprises paintings, sculptures and performances, has been shown in exhibitions in both Europe and the United States, for instance, at Volksbühne in Berlin (2018), at Jan Kaps in Cologne (2018 / 2016), at Dortmunder Kunstverein (2017), at the Swiss Institute in New York (2017), at Kunsthalle Zürich (2016), at Galerie Bernhard in Zurich (2016), at Oracle in Berlin (2015) and at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2015). In 2019, the presentation at Museum Folkwang will be followed by exhibitions at SALTS in Basel, Deborah Schamoni in Munich and Centre d’art contemporain - la synagogue de Delme.

Supported by

Opening Event
6:30 p.m. with Tobias Spichtig
Friday, 1 March 2019, 6:30 p.m.
Welcoming address by curator Isabel Hufschmidt
Concert with Max Brand
Special guest: Sir Henry, organ
Afterwards: Drinks and music wih Sir Henry

Participation is free.