Tobias Putrih Slovenian, 1972

Tobias Putrih (Kranj, Slovenia, 1972)

Born in Kranj, Slovenia, Tobias Putrih trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana and the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany. 

His works are the result of complex conceptual projects of architectural modification and design, through the use of ephemeral materials, such as soap bubble membranes, or through the precise manipulation of everyday materials, such as polystyrene and cardboard.

His works often appear as precarious, temporary and provisional, resembling models or prototypes that deep down address the high ideals of modernism, such as social utopias, modern architecture and the evolution of cinema, investigating their promises and failures. Putrih is inspired by visionary architects and intellectuals including Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, and AdolfLoos, the German pedagogist Friedrich Froebel and the French thinker Roger Caillois.

Today his largest installations can be found at the Espace315 of the Centre Pompidou, and at the Capella MACBA in Barcelona.

Important solo exhibitions include those at the Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen in Rotterdam, the Fondazione Prada in Milan, the MIT List Center in Cambridge and the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich. 

In addition to Espace315 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Capella MACBA in Barcelona, where he presented the largest installations include. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as TRACK, Smak, Ghent; Forms of Resistance, VanAbbe Museum, Eindhoven; Manifesta 4, Frankfurt, as well as the 29th São Paulo Biennale.

In 2007 he represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennale. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuni-gen in Rotterdam, among others.

The artist lives and works between Cambridge, Mass and Ljubljana.

Copyright the artist. Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)