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Tobias Spichtig
Tobias Spichtig (b. 1982, Lucerne, Switzerland) lives and works in Paris.
Tobias Spichtig draws inspiration from the world of fashion, theater and music, and works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, and photography. Using everyday icons such as sunglasses, pets, and flowers, as well as installations that mimic domestic landscapes such as "refrigerator mounds" and "mattress fields," he explores the intersection between the private and the public. His enigmatic portrait series, brimming with intimacy, blur the lines between the mundane and the glamorous, testing the boundaries between the individual and the collective.
His works have been exhibited internationally at Tao Art, Taipei; the Kunsthalle Basel, Basel; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the Swiss Institute, New York; the Boros Foundation, Berghain, Berlin; the Kaleidoscope, Spazio Maiocchi, Milan; the Centre d'art contemporain - la synagogue de Delme, Delme; SALTS, Basel; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Dortmunder Kunstverein; Malta Contemporary Art, Valetta; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Belgrade; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Ludlow 38 (Goethe Institute), New York; the Ursula Blickle Foundation, Karlsruhe; and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam.
Tobias Spichtig draws inspiration from the world of fashion, theater and music, and works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, and photography. Using everyday icons such as sunglasses, pets, and flowers, as well as installations that mimic domestic landscapes such as "refrigerator mounds" and "mattress fields," he explores the intersection between the private and the public. His enigmatic portrait series, brimming with intimacy, blur the lines between the mundane and the glamorous, testing the boundaries between the individual and the collective.
His works have been exhibited internationally at Tao Art, Taipei; the Kunsthalle Basel, Basel; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the Swiss Institute, New York; the Boros Foundation, Berghain, Berlin; the Kaleidoscope, Spazio Maiocchi, Milan; the Centre d'art contemporain - la synagogue de Delme, Delme; SALTS, Basel; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Dortmunder Kunstverein; Malta Contemporary Art, Valetta; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Belgrade; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Ludlow 38 (Goethe Institute), New York; the Ursula Blickle Foundation, Karlsruhe; and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam.
Sam (Reclining Nude)2023
Oil on canvas
210 x 260 cm
Triptych / Study for a Face / Cover Story / Stupid Sadness 2023
Oil on canvas
Good Old Feelings, 2020
Nickel, resin, textile
49 x 74 x 180 cm
My Broken Little Heart, 2023
Oil on canvas
205 x 260 cm
Hello. 2019
Vinyl print, oil and lacquer on canvas
190 x 135 cm
Heiner Müller 2017
Used car parts and fenders, plastic shell of MIDI keyboard,hosing and piping, metal, gas tank
150 x 250 x 270 cm
Edge of Refusal
Conor Ackhurst, Mick Barr, William S. Burroughs, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Jill Mulleady, David Ostrowski and Tobias Spichtig
06 March 2026 – 25 April 2026
Clarissa
Alan Michael, Alexandra Bircken, Anna Clegg, Calvin Marcus, Eric N. Mack, François Durel, Graham Wiebe, Hamish Pearch, Hilary Lloyd, Jan Vorisek, Jasmine Gregory, Jef Geys, Joel Wycherley, Justin Chance, Kayode Ojo, Kembra Pfahler, Michael Dean, Michel Majerus, Oscar Enberg, Patricia L. Boyd, Rafik Greiss, Remi Ajani, Ser Serpas, Seiji Inagaki, Stuart Middleton, Tiago Francez, Tobias Spichtig, Tom Burr and Win McCarthy
14 - 19 October, 2025
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), Zurich
The Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles, US
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
When a Joke Becomes A Prayer, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
2025
Taxi zur Kunst, CFA, Berlin
Heavy Mental, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich
Travel logs, Grisebach Schweiz, Zürich
2024
A Muse and an Angel on a Graveyard, Eugster, Belgrade
It's Beautiful When the Spirits Arrive, Tao Art, Taipei
People, Jan Kaps, Cologne
Everything No One Ever Wanted, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
2023
Poetry, Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York
Dear Friends, O-Town House, Los Angeles
2022
Die Matratzen, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2021
Good OK Great Fantastic Perfect Grand Thank You, Swiss Institute, New York
Nothing , Freehouse, London
2020
Subtitles for Footnotes, Galerie Bernhard, ZürichPretty Fine, CFA, Berlin
Hi is just another word for hello, Kaleidoscope, Spazio Maiocchi, Milan
2019
Love and die, Centre d'art contemporain - la synagogue de Delme, Delme
Fridge & Mind Again, (curated by Samuel Leuenberger), SALTS, Basel
SPRING, Deborah Schamoni, Munich
I'm afraid I don't know how to explain all this, Museum Folkwang, Essen
2018
Das Böse im Dunkeln, Freehouse, London
Total Hell, Waldo, RockportLong Stories, Jan Kaps, Cologne
Fridge and Mind, Malta Contemporary Art, Valetta
2017
Die Matratzen, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Body and Ghost, Malta Contemporary, Valetta
2016
Like Deadlines in Heaven, Gallery Bernhard, Zurich
Die Matratzen, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2015
Daily Business, (in collaboration With Paolo Thorsen-nagel), LambdaLambdaLambda, PristinaBackdrops for Primitives, Michael Thibault Gallery, Los Angeles
2014
Sorry I'm Late / Don't Worry Time Does Not Exist., Gallery Bernhard, Zurich
2013
This Is What Happened In the Jungle., Eleven Rivington, New York
Cyan, Yellow, and Violette, Georg Gatsas - Tobias Mirror, Kunstrayen, Riehen
2012
the Blue, the Red, the Green, the Cuboid and the Pyramid, Ursula Blickle Foundation, Karlsruhe
2011
the Blue, the Red, the Yellow, the White, the Brown, and the Green, Ac Kupper_modern, Zurich
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026Edge of Refusal, Soft Commodity, London
2025
Clarissa, Soft Commodity, London
Of Other Places, Museum Galerie Sindelfingen, SindelfingenBasement Art Assembly Biennial, CURA. Rome, Rome
2024
Yours Truly, Nahmad Contemporary, New YorkAthletics of the figures, Arcane 57, Paris
Shifting, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
2023
Rituals for a new world, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris
2022
Forming Communities, KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin Lobe Block, Berlin
2021
New Flesh, Forde, Geneva
Stitches, Scènes, Corps, Décors | When The Subversive Stitches, Le Commun, Genève
Grand Ménage, Clearing, Paris
Party de Campagne, CAC - La Synagoge de Delme, Delme
Pathologically Social, O-Town House, Los Angeles
2020
Studio Berlin - cooperation between Boros and Berghain, Berghain, Berlin
Poglos / Overtone, Avant-Garde Institute, Warsaw
2019
40,000, A Museum of Curiosity, (curated by Brigitte Franzen), Fellbach Small Sculpture Triennial 2019, Fellbach
Starship. The Near Future, Volksbühne, Berlin
2018
Five Million Years, Deborah Schamoni, MunichOrmai, Balice Hertling, Paris
2017
Things in Shape of Things, Galeria Stereo, Warsaw
Okey Dokey, Zum Jülichstübli, Jan Kaps, Cologne
Fade In 2: Ext. Modernist Home - Night, Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Belgrade
Summer Show, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm
Hunger, (curated by Oriane Durand), Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund
Lunar Intervals, Swiss Institute, New York
2016
Tbilisi 16, Kitchen Hall Zurich, Tbilisi
Parapet / Real Humans, P4s, Los Angeles
I Pledge Allegiance, (curated by KM Temporaer), On Stellar Rays, New York
2015
Infamous Lives, Oracle, BerlinThe Subjects of the Artists, Michael Thibault Gallery, Los Angeles
A Form Is a Social Gatherer, Plymouth Rock, Zurich
All the instruments agree: an exhibition or a concert, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2014
Attention Economy, (curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
Elevation 1049*, (curated by Olympia Scarry and Neville Wakefield), Gstaad
2013
Celluloid Brushes, Ludlow 38 (Goethe Institute), New York
Sallie Gardner: A Group Exhibition, Michael Thibault Gallery, Los Angeles
2011
Melanchotopia, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam