Thomas Wachholz

The German artist Thomas Wachholz radically explores the dimensions of everyday materials, processes and techniques, thus throwing light back onto the perception of our design spaces of the everyday.

The constant interplay between dualistic, routines and contradictory forces creates an imbalance that prevents the works from saying a certain thing, thus opening up a poetic space in the realms of meaning. The experience of Wachholz’s works results like a search for the origin of his practice and the associated questioning of what painting actually is in its form. In most cases, however, one has to content oneself with contemplative ambiguity: His alcohol paintings neither constitute the traditional concept of painting, nor do they correspond to a purely mechanical practice. The execution of Wachholz’s process allows the canvas to penetrate into a place that distances itself from painting, and as “soft” paintings they can achieve a paradoxical further development of subtraction.

Thomas Wachholz (*1984 in Cologne) graduated from the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 2016 with Prof. Katharina Grosse and Marcel Odenbach. Wachholz’s works are regularly shown in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and institutions all around the world, including Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg; Haus für zeitgenössische Kultur, Maastricht; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Yves Klein Archive, Paris; and Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles. Thomas Wachholz lives and works in Cologne.