Reshaped Reality

50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture

Hyperrealistic sculptures emulate the forms, contours and textures of the human body or singular body parts and thereby create a convincing visual illusion of human physicality. From the late 1960s on, different sculptors got involved with a mode of realism based on the physically lifelike appearance of the human body. By deploying traditional techniques of modelling, casting, and painting in order to recreate human figures they followed different approaches towards a contemporary form of figural realism.

Based on a selection of around 30 hyperrealistic sculptures by 26 pioneering international artists the exhibition shall display the development of the human figure in hyperrealistic sculpture during the last 50 years.The selection reveals five different key issues in the approach towards the depiction of figural realism in order to emphasize how the way we see our bodies has been subject to constant change.

Exhibition objects: 30 sculptures by 26 artists
Exhibition space: 800 – 1000 sqm
Exhibition catalog: Spanish, Danish, English, Dutch/English, German/English, Chinese, French/Dutch, French/English

Exhibition venues:
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain, June 7, 2016 – September 26, 2016
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico, October 15, 2016 – January 8, 2017
ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Denmark: February 4, 2017 – August 6, 2017
National Gallery of Australia, Australia, October 20, 2017 – February 18, 2018
Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands, March 10, 2018 – July 1, 2018
Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, July 21, 2018 – October 21, 2018
Heydar Aliyev Center, Azerbaijan, November 29, 2018 – March 10, 2019
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taiwan, June 29, 2019 – September 22, 2019
La Boverie, Liège, Belgium, November 22, 2019 – August 2, 2020
Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany, August 23, 2020 – April 11, 2021
Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Belgium, June 25, 2021 – January 2, 2022
La Sucrière, Lyon, France, February 11, 2022 – July 24, 2022
Musée Maillol, Paris, France, September 8, 2022 – March 5, 2023
Palazzo Bonaparte, Rome, Italy, May 26, 2023 – October 8, 2023

 

Sam Jinks, Untitled (Kneeling Woman), 2015
© Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney

Tony Matelli, Josh, 2010
© Courtesy the artist

Peter Land, Back to square one, 2015
© Courtesy the artist and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Photo: Lior Zilberstein

Evan Penny, Panagiota: Conversation #1, Variation 2, 2008
© Courtesy the artist

Installation view Escultura hiperrealista 1973 – 2016, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 07 June – 26 September 2016
© Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao

Installation view 50 anos de Escultura Hiperrealista, MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, October 13, 2016 – January 08, 2017
© MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey

Installation view GYS! Er den levende?, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj February 04 – August 06, 2017
© Photo: Anders Sune Berg

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