ERWIN WURM
b. 1954, AustriaErwin Wurm’s artworks address the possibilities of sculpture itself, using the medium to ask questions about consumerism, identity and how we exist in society. His humorous pieces challenge traditional ideas about sculpture, encouraging participation and experimenting with volume, form and scale.
Early Years
Erwin Wurm was born in 1954 in Bruck an der Mur, Austria. Narrow House (2010 originally, but there are several iterations) is a version of his childhood home, but perhaps also a comment on his family’s thoughts on art and culture. Sharing a room with his sister, Wurm used to make sculptures from found objects such as stones. He wanted to go to art school, but his father wanted him to pursue law. They fought over the issue, compromising by Wurm gaining a teaching degree from the University of Graz in 1977. But Wurm was determined to be an artist, studying at Mozarteum in Salzburg and then the University of Applied Arts and Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, graduating in 1982.
Erwin Wurm: Artworks
Erwin Wurm’s sculptures are both abstract and figurative, asking us to consider familiar objects in new ways. In a 2026 interview, he said: “What truly matters to me is looking at our world through the lens of the absurd. This perspective allows us to see things differently and to discover something new.” Although his pieces are full of humour, they are also asking us to question the ways we inhabit the planet. Wurm’s sculptures play with the proportions and sizes of things we know well and use every day (houses, cars), adding volume or reducing size. He also invites interaction with his works.
- Wurm gained prominence in the 1990s with his One Minute Sculptures, in which viewers became participants, interacting with the objects the artist laid out, sometimes standing on a plinth and embodying the artwork themselves. The titles are often deliciously silly, including Sit Straight, Hold Your Breath and Think About Spinoza (1999) and Stand by the Pedestal and Eat a Sausage (2002). Both of these are pretty straightforward to follow, although some titles are less explicit, such as Ice Head (2003), which instructs viewers to put their head and a hand inside a hollowed-out fridge.
- The Dreamers (2023—) series, often realised in polyester, paint and aluminium, replaces the top halves of human bodies with massive pillows. The sculptures are often large, seeming unstable—certainly fragile. The works address the psychological feelings of perception and fear we experience in our dreams.
- Mind Bubbles (2023—2025) consider the relationship between identity, social expectations and self-image. The sculptures place ovoid shapes on top of cartoon legs, bringing to life the thoughts, specifically “thought bubbles” as seen in comic strips.
Erwin Wurm: Select Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2027)
- Dreamers, Museo Fortuny, Venice (2026)
- Tomorrow: Yes, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2026) Pantin, France
- Double Dream, Lehmann Maupin, New York City (2026)
- Human Form, Towada Art Centre (2025)
- Life Beat Soft Melt, Ludwig Museum Koblenz (2025)
- Erwin Wurm. A 70th Birthday Retrospective, Albertina Modern, Vienna (2024)
- Phantoms, König Galerie, Berlin (2024)
- Trap of the Truth, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2023)
- Hot, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2023)
- One Minute Forever, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2022)
- Am I a House?, Museum Jan Cunen, Oss (2022)
- Erwin Wurm, augmented reality exhibition, The Pavilion, Cantieri Culturali alla Zina, Palermo (2021) (and touring)
- Yes Biological, Lehmann Maupin, New York City (2020)
- The Serious Life of a Ridiculous Man, König Galerie, Berlin (2019)
- Peace and Plenty, Albertina, Vienna (2018) (and touring)
- Nudelskulpturen, Lenbachhaus, Munich (2016)
- De Profundis, Albertina, Vienna (2012)
- Desperate Philosophers, Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (2009) (and touring)
- Hamlet, Kunsthaus Zürich (2007)
- Fat Car et Jakob—Jakob Fat, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2002)
- The Photographers Gallery, London (2000)
- One Minute Sculptures, (Institute of Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin (1998)
- 22°C, Kunstverein Freiburg (1995) (and touring)
- New Work, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco (1991)
- Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (1988)
- 121 Art Gallery, Antwerp (1985)
- Erwin Wurm. Skulpturen, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (1982)
- Galerie Cool Tour, Graz (1978)
Select Group Exhibitions
- Performer and Participant, Tate Modern, London
- Raising Flags, Museum in Progress, Ahungall (2025)
- Inner Spaces, König Seoul (2024)
- Unfurnished, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London (2023)
- New Glass Now, Toyama Glass Art Museum (2022)
- Urban Theatre: A Comedy in Four Acts, UCCA Edge, Shanghai (2021)
- Dancing Machines, Frac Franche-Comté, Bresançon (2020)
- Popular Culture and the City, Manarat Al Saadiyat (2019)
- New Forms of Beauty. Neue Formen der Gestaltung zwischen Kunst und Funkftion, MaximiliansForum, Munich (2018)
- Austrian Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale (2017)
Further Reading
- Erwin Wurm’s official website
- Erwin Wurm’s Instagram
- Interview in Tide magazine (2026)
- 2020 interview in Ocula
- Artist profile page at Thaddaeus Ropac
- Artist profile page at Lehmann Maupin
Erwin Wurm FAQs
Does Erwin Wurm want viewers of his sculptures to get drunk?
To an extent, yes. Wurm’s official website describes his Drinking Sculptures series (2010—) as having “alcohol bottles and glasses... at [viewers’] disposal with instructions for the viewer to become part of the work”. The series is characterised by upside-down elements and disoriented furniture, or titles referring to artists who famously (allegedly) enjoyed a drink and deconstructs the romantic idea of the role of self-destruction in artistic creation. “Erwin Wurm considers these performative works as completed once the visitor gets drunk,” his website adds.
Does Erwin Wurm like cars?
Speaking in a 2012 video about his 1991 artwork Renault 25, which distorts the proportions of the classic French car as if it’s speeding, Wurm explains that cars represent and define us. Certainly, vehicles have been the subject of many of Wurm’s pieces. The Fat Cars series (2001—2005) added volume to traditional car shapes in a squishy, flesh-reminiscent way. Using sculpture, Wurm draws attention to how our appetite for consumerism perhaps matches our physical appetites. This arguably reached a peak with 2018’s Hot Dog Bus, in which a VW camper was transformed into a bloated, mustard-coloured vehicle... which also served real hot dogs to viewers.
How does Erwin Wurm use clothes in his sculptures?
Clothes appear throughout Wurm’s practice: pullovers, hoodies, knitted walls, coats, jumpers stretched over chairs, painted aluminium suits... all of which display garments without a human inside them. “I started to use clothes early in my work because it was cheap and accessible. I lived above a thrift store,” Wurm says on his website. “I realised then that from a sculptural perspective, they are as a second skin, a protective shell defining volume surfaces.” He also sees clothes as a way of asking psychological questions because they are elements of the identities humans adopt.
Ocula
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Erwin Wurm in Ocula Magazine
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