Following the retrospective exhibition at MoMA, New York, the Bernier/Eliades Gallery is pleased to present the 8th solo exhibition of Thomas Schütte in Athens. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, November 16, 2024, from 12:00 to 21:00, in the artist’s presence.

Thomas Schütte employs a vast range of disciplines, materials, techniques, and forms, which makes his work adaptable and diverse. For this exhibition, Schütte has created a series of new artworks that reflect his own exploration of artistic, personal, cultural, and political perspectives. The essence of Schütte’s work is both hybrid and contradictory, raising fundamental questions about its structure. Drawing inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman statuary, early modernist sculpture, and postmodern architecture, his practice moved away from minimalism and conceptualism towards narrative and figuration, adopting a richly material approach often perceived as ironic and critical. He believes that form, material, and color possess their own language, that cannot be translated. Central to Schütte’s work is the human figure within its socio-political context, including the role of artists and artworks in everyday life.

Born in 1954 in Germany, Thomas Schütte studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Today he lives and works in Düsseldorf. He has received numerous awards, including the Düsseldorf Prize (2010), the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (2005), the Kurt Schwitters Prize for Fine Arts of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung (1998), and the Kunstpreis der Stadt Wolfsburg (1996). His work is held in prominent international collections such as the ARC Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the MoMA, New York; the Pinault Collection – Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice; and Tate Modern, London. Thomas Schütte has recently held solo exhibitions at MoMA, New York, US (2024); Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany (2021); Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2016); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland (2013-2014); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2013); and the Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2012).