TEFAF MAASTRICHT 2026

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Nature as an incomprehensible other, filled with beauty yet obviously under threat, serves as the main source of inspiration for Buchmann Galerie’s presentation at TEFAF Maastricht. Five gallery artists explore this timeless theme through distinctive personal approaches: Wolfgang Laib incorporates natural materials such as beeswax into his meditative works; William Tucker merges human and natural forms in his monumental bronze sculpture on display; Anna & Bernhard Blume give the maltreated nature a strong presence in their powerful large-scale photographs; Bernd Koberling creates paintings deeply rooted in his connection to the natural world; complemented by a sublime sculpture by John Chamberlain that reflects his unique artistic vision.

Wolfgang Laib’s “Tower of Silence” belongs to a series of beeswax sculptures that the artist has first presented in his exhibition at the famous Cappella Rucellai in Florence 2019. The hand-shaped towers have a sensuous and compelling presence. The concentration and purity of the natural material gives the sculpture, placed on a wooden shelf on the wall, a serene beauty and a certain sacrosanctity. Wolfgang Laib succeeds in transcending the pure form to imbue the work with an auratic presence.

William Tucker explores the essence of sculpture in an oeuvre spanning almost seven decades. The large bronze sculpture “Emperor” was modeled in plaster and subsequently cast in bronze. It has an immediate visual corporeality. Tucker took part in documenta, represented Great Britain in 1972 at the Venice Biennale, and is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts. Emperor was exhibited in William Tucker’s survey Masa y Figura at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain, and in 2010 at Gloucester Cathedral, UK. Tucker’s work is held in numerous major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, among others.

Bernd Koberling’s painterly œuvre is permeated by a persistent drive for renewal, which is strikingly evident in his most recent works. His current paintings are profoundly shaped by his perception of landscape during regular, sometimes months-long stays in Iceland. Since 1977 he has spent time there every year, and the island’s nature has decisively influenced his work. This is reflected in the chromaticity of his paintings and in the manifold possibilities of a form of painting that opens itself to its own means in order to produce works of powerful visual intensity.

The large scale painting titled Erdstelle (roughly translated Earth Place/ Ground Point) position nature as metaphor for human condition in Koberling’s practice. His idiosyncratic approach lent his œuvre distinctive authority, distinguishing him within landmark exhibitions including “A New Spirit in Painting” (London) and “Zeitgeist” (Berlin).

The large work Im Wald (In the Forest) by the artist couple Anna & Bernhard Blume is part of a series of photographs that was created between 1982 and 1991. It was the only time that the Blumes moved the setting for their work to the outside, a forest near their hometown Cologne. Instead of pristine woodlands, the characters in the work are standing in a forest of trees stripped of their leaves by the acid rain. “On a symbolic level, the forest pictures can be read as the collapse of our idealizing concept of nature” (Bazon Brock, 1995). Here, the Blumes interact with trees in a similar way to their interaction with objects in other sequences, like Kitchen Frenzy. They hang from the branches, wedge themselves between the trunks or hug the trees in an ecstatic embrace. This “renaturation ecstasy” humorously and ironically depicts the desire to become one with nature but is also a commentary on the ongoing destruction of nature. The Centre Pompidou held a remarkable exhibition of the Blumes in 2015. A mayor survey exhibition was held 2025 at the Kunsthalle Krems in Austria.

For further information, images or interview requests, please contact: press@buchmanngalerie.com