Thomas Virnich. Zwischen Raum

Turning the inside out, even if it is a hollow space, is considered a creative principle by Thomas Virnich. The story of his objects often begins with collecting everyday objects found by chance, walking through flea markets or antique stores. Kairos, being in the right place at the right time, is an essential element in his life as an artist and is evident, for example, when entire future landscapes are built from street finds and science fiction props.

Virnich dissects, deconstructs, and blasts his spaces and architectures before building extraterrestrial worlds out of everyday earthly objects. In them, childhood memories, themes of popular culture and the modern entertainment industry converge. A direct transfer of memories and distorted impressions into the third dimension, Virnich’s models function as mediators in the world, between inside and outside. The materials, which range from paper, papier-mâché, and cardboard to wood, clay, lead, and bronze, always bear clear traces of manual, hands-on processing, and the sculptures usually appear intentionally unfinished, unstable, and fragile. Thus, his heads do not consist of smooth, closed forms, but broken, cracked and extremely lively surfaces.

Thomas Virnich studied from 1978 to 1981 at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen with Joachim Bandau and then until 1985 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Alfonso Hüppi and Eugen Gomringer. In 1987 he received the Villa Romana Prize and in 1991 the Villa Massimo Prize. Parallel to the exhibition at Galerie Michael Haas, Kunst Lager Haas at Lise-Meitner-Str. 7-9 will be showing further sculptures by Thomas Virnich.