Tobias Putrih

Born in 1972 in Kranj, Slovenia. 
Graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1997.
Between 1997 and 1998, studied at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Lives and works in Cambridge, USA.

Tobias Putrih’s practice frequently deals with artworks as proposals, maquettes, or models from existing architecture designs and ideas. Inspired by the likes of Buckminster Fuller, Friedrich Kielser and Yona Friedman, the artist’s materially ephemeral projects engage with twentieth century utopian and visionary concepts of design and architecture, realising makeshift architectural models of public spaces such as cinemas, libraries and galleries. Putrih’s temporary environments are made of ubiquitous, disposable and industrially manufactured materials, such as MDF, cardboard, paper, monofilaments, styrofoam and scaffolding. Putrih also adopts the use of intangible materials such as soap bubble membranes, light and shadow to explore the perimeters of design, architecture and sculpture. He employs these fractured forms as well as changes in floor levels and illumination to create a narrative pathway, often immersing his audience within the interiors of his sculptural installations.

Selected solo exhibitions

2021
Internal Affairs, Pink Summer Contemporary Art, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy.
Tobias Putrih: Perceptron, curated by Igor Španjol, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2016
Slight Agitation 1/4, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy.
Tobias Putrih, Group-Form, Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels, Belgium.
Compressões, Galeria Luciana Brito Saõ Paulo, Brazil.
Obfuscation, Pinksummer Contemporary Art, Genova, Italy.

2015
Pale Guardians, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany.

2014
Solar Limb, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland.
Routine Inspection – part of Steirischer Herbst Festival ‘Forms of Distancing. Representative Politics and the Politics of Representation’, Zollamt, Graz, Austria.
Inspección rutinaria, Flora, Bogota, Columbia.

2013
Death of Tarelkin, Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels, Belgium.
Revolution Square, ARKO Art Center, Seoul, South Korea.
An Ode to the Egg, P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2012
White City, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany.
Apropos Polly Magoo, Natalie Seroussi at Meudon, Meudon, France.
Book Tower Studio, S.M.A.K, Ghent, Belgium.

2011
When Language Goes on Holiday, Meulensteen/Protetch Gallery, New York, USA.
Spogliando un vicino, Galleria Pinksummer, Genoa, Italy.
A,H,O,I,!, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany.

2010
ŠiškaInternational, Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
After Frei Otto, Ludlow38, New York, USA.
Majestic (with MOS), Wexner Center, Ohio, USA.

2009
Without Out (with MOS), MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA.
Overhang (with MOS), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.
Intervention #10 (with MOS), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

2008
Restless Subject (with Runa Islam), Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland.
Projection Space Related to Runa Islam’s Empty the pond to get the fish, White Cube, London, United Kingdom.
Cinéma attitudes, Attitudes, Geneva, Switzerland.
Re-projection, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany.
Lost Cinema Lost (with Runa Islam), Galeria Civica, Modena, Italy.

2007
Venetian, Atmospheric, Slovenian Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.
Quasi-Random, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA.
Repertoire, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, USA.
Paradise, Galleria Pinksummer, Genoa, Italy.
Max Protetch Gallery – Project Space, New York, USA.

2006
A Place by Two, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

2005
Max Protetch Gallery, New York City, USA.
Tobias Putrih (with Toby Paterson), Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria.

2004
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France.

2003
Max Protetch Gallery, New York City, USA.
Mala Galerija, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2002
Science Fiction, Bežigrajska Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2001
Movie Tales (with Žiga Kariž), Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

1999
Galerija Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Selected group exhibitions

2023
(Everything Is) Not What It Seems, Piran Civic Gallery, Piran Coastal Galleries, Slovenia.

2018
TEMPORARY STRUCTURES IV, PLATO Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Recollection – A Journey After 28 Years, PROYECTOSMONCLOVA, Mexico City, Mexico.
Futurologija – Kaj lahko umetnost jutri naredi za vas?, Mestna galerija Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica,  Slovenia.
The Swamp School, Il Giardino Bianco Art Space, Castello, 16th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy.
Echigo tsumari art triennale 2018, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Secretariat, Niigata-ken, Japan.

2017
trigon 67/17. ambiente nuovo/ post environment, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Austria.

2016
A History. Contemporary Art from the Centre Pompidou, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.
Shape of Time – Future of Nostalgia, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, Romania.
Um die Ecke denken, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland.
Low-Budget Utopias, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2015
Reverse Order: Troika, Tobias Putrih, Larry Bell, Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie, Basel, Switzerland.
Crises and New Beginnings: Art in Slovenia 2005-2015, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Vanità/Vanitas, Museuo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy.
1st Trio Biennial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Timely Manoeuvres, Ikkan Art Gallery, Singapore.
The magic of art. Protagonists of Slovenian contemporary art 1968-2013, Glyptotheque, Zagreb, Croatia (also travelled to Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, Austria).
Mainzer Ansichten, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany.

2014
Une histoire, art, architecture et design, des années 80 à aujourd\’hui, Centre Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France.
Art & Me. Collection Mudam, Mudam – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Coffee & Ink, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia.
September Show, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany.
The Magic of Art – the Protagonists of Slovene Contemporary Art 1986-2013, Vila Manin, Passariano di Codroipo, Italy.
Urban Perspective – Dark City, Schafhof – Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern, Freising, Germany.
The Empty Pedestal, Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna, Italy.
Film Without Film, Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany.

2013
Triple Identity: Favaretto, Maljkovic, Putrih, Contemporary Museum Istria, Pula, Croatia.
Off-Modern: Ruins of the Future, Special projects of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
Ways of Working: the Incidental Object, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy.
OK ExtraKino, OK Zentrum, Linz, Austria.
Cinematic Scope, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria.

2012
TRACK, S.M.A.K, Ghent, Belgium.
Light and Landscape, Storm King Sculpture Park, Mountainville, New York, USA.
One Sixth of the Earth, MUSAC, Leon, Spain.
Les Detours de L’Abstracion, Mudam – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Cantenmus – Choirs, the Sublime and the Exegesis of Being, Argos, Centre for Art and Media, Brussels, Belgium.
Wir sind alle Astronauten, Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Germany.

2011
MärklinWorld, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands.
Auditorium Moscow. A sketch for a Public Space, Bielie Palaty, Moscow, Russia.
Un’Espressione Geografica, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy.
Spaceship Earth, Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, Poland.
We Are All Astronauts – Universe Richard Buckminster Fuller, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany.

2010
Rehabilitation, Wiels, Brussels.
21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
29th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil.
Yesterday’s Tomorrows, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
Material World, MoCA – Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, USA.
Star City: The Future Under Communism, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England.
Brave New World, Mudam – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

2009
Projections, Musée d’art contermporain de Nimes, Nimes, France.
Go East II, Mudam – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Warsaw Under Construction, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland.
Tiempo como materia, Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Là où je suis n’existe pas, Les Abattoirs de Toulouse, Toulous, France.

2008
Psycho Buildings: Architecture by Artists, The Hayward Museum, London, UK.
Megastructure Reloaded, Berlin, Germany.
Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museion, Bolzano, Italy.
Fast-Forward, Project Space 176, London, UK.
Transmediale 08: Conspire, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany.

2007
Anachronism, Argos, Brussels, Belgium.
Multiplex – Directions in Art 1970 to Now, MoMA, New York, USA.
Forms of Resistance, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

2006
Erzählungen, -35/65+ Zwei Generationen, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria.
Eldorado, Mudam – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
ArtUnlimited, Galerija Gregor Podnar, ArtBasel 37, Basel, Switzerland.
Dialogo II, Galleria Enrico Fornello, Prato, Italy.

2005
Certain Tendencies in Representation, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
Greater New York, PS1, Long Island City, New York, USA.
Monument for America, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA.
Downtime: Constructing Leisure, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, USA.
Trend,
City Art Museum Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2004
Collective Effort, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA.
Mediteraneo, MACRO Contemporary Art Museum, Rome, Italy.
Den Haag Sculptuur, Hague, Netherlands.
Seven Sins, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2003
ArtUnlimited, Art Basel 34, Basel, Switzerland.
In the Gorges of the Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany.
U3, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Peter Donaldson, Kalin Lindena, Tobias Putrih, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, United Kingdom.

2002
Manifesta 4, Frankfurt, Germany.
September Horse, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.
Kunstexpeditionen, Forum of Sony Center at Postdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany.
Max Protetch Gallery, New York, USA.
Škuc Gallery Project, Art Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
Twinklings, Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2001
Becomings, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tirana / City Art Museum Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Shall I or shall I not?, Pavel-House, Laafeld, Austria.

Public Commissions and Competitions

2015
FutureCity, South Bank Tower, London, United Kingdom.
2011
Winzavod Auditorium, Moscow, Russia.
2010
WWB2 Auditorium, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland.
Pavilion for Museum of Modern Art Warsaw (competition per invitation, 2nd place – with MOS architects)
2009
Sculpture park design (with Interboro Architects), Canal & Varick Street, New York, USA.

Public Collections

Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderna, Paris, France.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA.
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (Mudam), Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain.
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York at Purchase College, New York, USA.
Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy.