Wolfgang Tillmans has devoted himself to creating pictures that negotiate between the things he makes, the things he finds, and the choices he makes recording, preserving, and translating the three-dimensionality of the material world. Tillmans's new exhibition at Galerie Buchholz attests to his ongoing interest in this significant aspect of his practice: the recording of materiality and sculptural forms in his work. The exhibition features a variety of works that explore the interplay of optical translations of matter, transforming purposeful objects into sculptural objects of meditation. Tillmans's specific pictorial strategy delves into the workings of our cognitive apparatus, making ordinary things reachable and understandable. The exhibition also includes a sculptural display structure and Tillmans's Lighter works, which negotiate aspects of photographic image-making. Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of Tillmans's second album Build from Here. This marks the 13th solo show by Tillmans at Galerie Buchholz.
About the Artist
Since the late 1980s, the work of Wolfgang Tillmans has combined intimacy and playfulness with social commentary, alongside his ongoing interrogation of the foundations of his most-used medium: photography. A seamless fusion of styles, subject matter and modes of display, his bodies of work often challenge familiar and commonly held attitudes towards the photographic medium and processes of contemporary image-making. In 2000, Tillmans—a former student of The Bournemouth & Poole College, England (1990–1992)—became the first photographer and first non-British artist to be awarded the Turner Prize. In 2015, he received the prestigious Hasselblad Award.
Galerie Buchholz is an art gallery specializing in international contemporary art, with exhibition spaces in Cologne, Berlin and New York City. The gallery was founded in Cologne in 1986 by Daniel Buchholz, and today is run jointly with Christopher Müller.
