Thomas Kühnapfel

Biography

Born in 1966 in Rees, Germany

Education

1987 – 1994: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, class of Prof. Tony Cragg
1990: Bernard Hoetger Award, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
1994: Master student of Prof. Tony Cragg

Exhibitions (Selection)

2025

Vortex, duo exhibition, Galerie Filser & Gräf, Munich
art Karlsruhe, art fair, Galerie Filser & Gräf, Munich
Art Düsseldorf, art fair, Galerie Löhrl
Art Cologne, Galerie Löhrl

2024

Art Düsseldorf, Galerie Löhrl
Art Cologne, Galerie Löhrl

2023

art Karlsruhe, art fair, Galerie Filser & Gräf, Munich

2022

Group exhibition, Galerie Filser & Gräf, Munich
Galerie Brunnhofer, Linz, Austria
Art Düsseldorf
50 Years Galerie Löhrl
Solo exhibition, Galerie Brunnhofer

2021

Art Cologne
Solo exhibition, Galerie Löhrl

2020

Solo exhibition Dynastien, Q Galerie Schorndorf

2019

Art Cologne

2018

Art Cologne, Galerie Löhrl
Exhibition, Galerie Löhrl

2017

Sculpture Garden Waldfrieden (Tony Cragg), Big Animal

2016

Art Miami Pinta, Jacob Karpio Gallery

2015

Volta 11 Basel
Galerie Brunnhofer, Retrospective Basel with Elisabeth Sonneck
Luftmuseum Amberg, solo exhibition

2014

Wilhelmshöhe Ettlingen, Germany’s Greatest Metal Sculpturists, Karlsruhe
Kunsthaus Kurhaus Kleve, Big in Japan 1
Dresden, Big in Japan 2

2013

Kunstsalon, represented by Galerie Brunnhofer
Sculpture Garden, Galerie Brunnhofer
Luftmuseum Amberg, permanent loan

2012

Volta 8 Basel, Galerie Brunnhofer
Villa Empain – Boghossian Foundation, Brussels

2011

Galerie Brunnhofer, Sculpture GardenReservoir

2010

Gallery of the City of Kaarst
Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Salon der Künstler
Special presentation at C.A.R., Essen, European Capital of Culture 2010

2009 – 2004

Galerie Nostheide Eycke, Düsseldorf
Museum of the City of Waiblingen, Thomas Kühnapfel
Galerie Brunnhofer, Face to Face, Linz
Museum Amberg
Luft. Poetic Qualities and Turbulent Highlights, Schloss Mondsee (Curated by Eleonora Louis, Museum der Moderne Salzburg)
Art Salzburg, represented by Galerie Henseleit, Salzburg
Transformations in Aluminum, Galerie Henseleit Buchholz, Cologne
Art Frankfurt, represented by Galerie Buchholz, Cologne
Museum of Cologne
Airport Art 2: Olympia, Art and Greece, Frankfurt am Main

Description

Air, water, steel, volume.

Notes on the works of Thomas Kühnapfel by Prof. Harald Kunde, Director Museum Kurhaus Kleve



Since the mid-1990s, sculptor Thomas Kühnapfel (*1966) has been working on sculptures that owe their creation to calculated physical forces. Using air and water, he places materials ranging from sheet metal to stainless steel under enormous pressure, creating volumes that often look like floating cushions and yet have not lost their physical weight. In contrast to the traditional methods of sculpture, beating a form out of a block or creating a shape by modeling clay, he creates a limited space from the inside out in a way that was previously not thought possible through the visible resistance of the respective material. This also means that the process of creation is just as important to him as the final result, which is why some of his sculptures, such as in 2014 in the courtyard of the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, are carried out as a kind of public performance and gave participants an unforgettable impression of the elementary power of the effect of compressed air on the curving steel. The resulting interplay between precise control and induced coincidence reflects Kühnapfel’s fundamental conviction of an organic approach to the material and therefore to the world: when the force used is derived from the material, the result is a new form of art.