Wolfgang Stiller

Installation and Objects

Curated by Marion Wild

Dates: 27 Mar - 8 May 03

Wolfgang Stiller’s exhibition Installation and Objects is a profile through his artistic oeuvre from the last 10 years. A working phase contains the theme of the twin, strongly represented in the wax casted, couple-we grouped doll heads. Stiller and his identical twin brother lived both in Berlin, what brought up the confrontation with his "alter ego" almost every day.

With his emigration to New York the theme of the twins retired into the background. Stiller make use of materials as wax, latex, silicone and colored liquids. He presents these in self-made display boxes or glass containers and creates laboratory installations. Colored silicone casts of ornamental gourds live a metamorphosis through the change of color, to unknown, often erotic objects. The negative cast of a toy helicopter mutes through his flesh like color in an organic object. Although in the background, but not completely disappeared is the theme of the twins, now there are divergent pairs of comprehension which Stiller is interested in: artificial-natural, hard-soft, positive-negative.

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Not only in the sculptural context the artist uses unusual materials, but also in his drawings. Delicate sheets, with thin foils of gold and silver applied, so called sacrifice sheets, which you can obtain in asian temples, Stiller uses as ground. Out of coffee, ink and pencil originate figures, which are related to the twin theme, but also fanciful creations, which allows numerous evocations and remind to the strange shapes in Stiller’s laboratories.

Wolfgang Stiller, born in 1961 in Wiesbaden, Germany, studied from 1984-1989 painting and sculpture at the Kunstakademie of Duesseldorf. Grants, from the city of Berlin, and the Berliner Senat allowed him to work in Istanbul and Tokyo. The artist 's work was featured in numerous solo and group shows mainly in Germany and Japan, where his works are represented, both in private collections as in museums (Museum Bochum, K.E. Osthaus Museum, Hagen e.a.). Wolfgang Stiller lives and works in New York. Installation and Objects is his USA debut.