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 Garden, Reservoir
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
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.