Wilhelm Mundt — Klumpen

23 January — 14 March 2015

Opening: Friday, 23 January, 7 — 9 pm

The Buchmann Gallery is pleased to announce a new solo show of works by the sculptor Wilhelm Mundt (*1959 in Grevenbroich).

Wilhelm Mundt’s most widely-known works are his Trashstones. This group of works, which the artist started making in 1989, consists of production waste from his studio coated in coloured polyurethane resin. From the very outset the artist meticulously numbered each piece with a sequential triple-digit number. Each Trashstone is part of a consecutive series, conjuring up visions of serial production processes. The group of works, which now comprises more than 600 individual pieces, is testimony to the artist’s consistent will to explore forms and colours, which makes each Trashstone a unique, one-of-a-kind item. 

For the exhibition in Berlin, Wilhelm Mundt has used a new method of processing the surface, which he first trialled several years ago and has since perfected. The artist draws on the smooth, cream-coloured surface of the Trashstone, adding drawings that either reference the shape of the sculpture or are free compositions that add a further level to the piece. The surface of the sculpture becomes the substrate for an artistic reflection on the piece itself. Wilhelm Mundt presents the new group of works in rows on a large shelf. This serves to underscore the aspect of inventorisation, with the individually and sequentially numbered Trashstones lined up like items in an archive. 

In his new photographs, Wilhelm Mundt takes the outlines of his Trashstones and positions them at the centre as black holes. The works depict existing Trashstones in their original size; their physicality can only be sensed through the coloured shadow of the original. The viewer is mirrored in a seemingly endless, dematerialised depth. 

Wilhelm Mundt’s work has recently been shown at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf and K20 Grabbeplatz, Düsseldorf. His works are in the collections of several museums and institutions, including Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Margulies Collection Miami, Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, University of Bayreuth, MunichRE, BNP Paribas and Vestas Aarhus.