TOBIAS REHBERGER

b. 1966 in Esslingen, Germany
Lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany

 

 

Tobias Rehberger creates objects, sculptures and environments as diverse as they are prolific. Drawing on a repertoire of quotidian objects appropriated from everyday mass-culture, Rehberger translates, alters and expands ordinary situations and objects with which we are familiar. At once utilitarian, ambient and perceptually powerful, Rehberger’s objects and environments mimic the glossy perfection of the manufactured yet idiosyncrasies in terms of their colour, size, function and location demand new rules of engagement on behalf of the beholder.

In a mesmerising installation at the Venice Biennale of 2003, Rehberger created a canopy of glass lamps activated by triggers located in seven different locations around the globe including a pumpkin field in the Walachi region in Romania, and a derelict Burger King in Kyoto. Emerging from ordinary conditions that have been radically altered, Rehberger’s proposals are interdependent upon the viewer. As such they exist as potent instruments for examining the relationship between objects and situations, and our shifting sensibilities as individual subjects.

He has participated in several exhibitions such as: In the Future On/Off, UMoCA, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Province of Siena, IT (2024); “I do if I don’t”, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart (2022); “Macht! Licht!”, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2022); “The Voice of Things. Highlights of the Centre Pompidou Collection, Vol. 2”, West Bund Museum Shanghai (2021/23); ‘Exquisite Trust’ (Blindly collective Collaborations), STPI, Singapore (2017); ‘The Present Order’, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst”, Leipzig (2017); ‘VERMISST Der Turm der Blauen Pferde von Franz Marc’, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2017); ‘SUR/FACE.SPIEGEL’, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a.M. (2017); ‘Mutter 81%’, Câmera Municipal, Coleção de Serralves, Santo Tirso (2016);  ‘Adventures of the Black Square’, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Extra Large: Monumental works from the Centre Pompidou Collection (2014); Grimaldi Forum, Monaco (2014); ‘Tobias Rehberger’, Kunstraum Grässlin, St. Georgen (2014); ‘Tobias Rehberger: Wrap it up’, MACRO Museum, Rome (2014); ‘Home and Away and Outside’, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2014); ‘When I See the Other Side of Heaven, It Is Just as Blue’ , The Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2013); Artelier Contemporary, Graz (2013); ‘Junge Mütter und andere heikle Fragen’, Essl Museum, Vienna (2011); ‘Tobias Rehberger’, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (2011); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2011); ‘flach’, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2010); ‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered’, Musée Rochechouart, Rochechouart (2009); ‘…my time is not your time’, Kunstraum Innsbruck (2009); ‘The Chicken-and-Egg-No-Problem Wall-Painting’, Museum Amsterdam (2008); Ludwig, Cologne, Get a New Liver, Tate Liverpool (2006); ‘Casa Aberta’, INHOTIM Centro de Arte contemporânea, Minas Gerais (2006); ‘Karl-Ströher-Preis 2003 Tobias Rehberger’, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2003); ‘Night Shift’, Palais du Tokyo, Paris (2002); ‘A Noir – Nero. Le identità di un colore contemporaneo’, Triennale di Milano, Milan (1998).

His work is included in collections such as Sammlung Boros, Berlin, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Léon, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, FRAC – Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Burger Collection, Berlin, ALTANA Kulturstiftung im Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg or H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast, Augsburg.