Tobias Kaspar
Biography
1984
Born in Basel, Switzerland
Lives and works in Riga, Latvia and Zurich, Switzerland
2009 - 2010
Städelschule, Frankfurt
2005 - 2011
Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg
Tobias Kaspar (b. 1984, Basel, Switzerland) is a conceptual artist whose practice operates across photography, sculpture, installation, publishing, performance, and design to explore the intersections of art, fashion, image production, and systems of consumption. Through these diverse media, he examines how desire, value, and cultural meaning are constructed, circulated, and commodified.
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Solo Exhibitions
2027
Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia
2026
Chapter 1: Jealousy, Wilde Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
Chapter 2: Revenge, Wilde Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
Unconditional, Museum Abteiberg, Germany
2025
Atelier, Galerie Urs Meile, Ankerstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland
September Issue, Spazio Lima, Milano, Italy
2024
End of an Era, MadeIn Art Museum, Shanghai, China
The Paris Agreement, Bonny Poon / Conditions, Paris, France
Stereotypical Artist, Lars Friedrich, Berlin, Germany
2023
The Complete Interview Magazine, Issue 529, Winter 19 (restaged), Vi VII, Oslo
2022
Personal Shopper, FOUNDRY SEOUL, Seoul, South Korea
The Cherry Orchard, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
Personal Shopper, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
2021
Rented Life, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
The Complete Interview Magazine, Issue 529, Winter 19, VIVII, Oslo, Norway
Personal Shopper (Retail Apocalypse), Froschaugasse 4, Zurich
With Love From, Instagram Story and contemporaryartdaily.com
2019
Horn of Plenty, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
The Category Is, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Why Love Hurts, Galerie Lars Friedrich, Berlin, Germany
The Estate, Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Latvia
2018
Epicentre, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn, Estonia
Independence, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
The Complete, Archiv Christoph Schifferli, Zurich, Switzerland
2017
Anna K, kim?, Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Latvia
2016
The Street, Jenny’s, Los Angeles, US
New Address, Lovaas, Munich, Germany
The Street, Silberkuppe, Berlin, Germany
The Street, Cinecittà Film Studios, Rome, Italy
The Street, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
2015
Two Cities - Two Lives, Solo Shows, Sao Paulo and Frey Kalioubi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Street, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Rome, Italy
Toby’s Tristram Shandy Shop, Udolpho, Berlin, Germany
Diffusion Line, with PROVENCE, Oracle, Berlin, Germany
2014
The Air on the Way to the Oyster, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
Tobias Kaspar, Kunsthalle Sao Poalo, Brazil
Surface Apparent, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
2013
Tobias Kaspar, Midway Contemporary Art Center, Minneapolis, US
The Bling Ring, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Hydra Life, Silberkuppe, Berlin, Germany
2012
Life and Lies, Marcelle Alix, Paris, France
Bodies in the Backdrop, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Bodies in the Backdrop, Halle Fuer Kunst, Luneburg, Germany
2011
Why Sex Now, Alex Zachary Gallery, New York, US
2010
Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Silberkuppe, Berlin, Germany
2009
Sentimental Style, Hermes und der Pfau and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026
Where the water begins, Verbier 3-D Foundation, Verbier, Switzerland
2025
Accumulation – On Collecting, Growth, and Excess, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
The Recycling Centre, U’s, Okotoks, Canada
2024
Hunger, curated by Hans-Christian Dany, Weiss Falk Galerie, Basel, Switzerland
2023
The loan Takers, Galerie Lars Friedrich, Berlin
2022
Information (Today), Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway
PRINT ART NOW, Musée Jenisch Veve, Switzerland
Feelings of the Season – Part II, Galerie Urs Meile, Ardez, Switzerland
2021
Echo, Galerie Urs Meile, Ardez, Switzerland
Snapshot, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
Artists’ Library: 1989-2021, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome, Italy
Information (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2020
Im Volksgarten, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland
VFO, Zurich, Switzerland
On Adornments, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery (Tallinn) at Spike Office, Berlin, Germany
2019
Wearable / Unwearable Art, curated by Claire Hoffmann, Centre Culturelle Suisse, Paris, France
Longtang Collection, Synnika, Frankfurt, Germany
2018
Fashion Drive, Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland
Galerie Emanuel Layr, Vienna & Rome, cur. by Robert Müller
25 years of Kunst Raum Riehen, Riehen, Switzerland
Tars Gallery Bangkok, with Merlin Carpenter
2017
David Bowie, Kunsthalle Schlieren, Schlieren, Germany
5 Years of VI, VII, Independent Régence, Brussels, Belgium
2016
Bread And Roses - Artists And The Class Divide, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
Studiolino, Rome, Italy
L’Etat parfait, Freymond-Guth Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland
2015
Friends, Lovers and Financiers, Museum MAXXI, Rome
The Verdant, Hacienda, Zurich, Switzerland
Conversations Pieces, Fondazione Memmo, Rome, Italy
L’appropriationniste (contre et avec), Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France
Off Broadway, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, US
2014
Blue Times, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
In Real Life, Christine König Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Augment this (Meditations on the Image), Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles, US
Against the Grain, Centre de la Photographie, Geneva, Switzerland
Coming of Age for Ages, Halle für Kunst Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany
Upstairs Downstairs, Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany
The Missing Stories, CAFAM Biennial 2014, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China
Effie B, Silberkuppe, Berlin, Germany
Momentum?, PSM Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2013
Macumba Palace, Palais des arts, Toulouse, France
The Estate, Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany
Costumes: Written Clothing, Tramway, Glasgow, UK
Gerry Bibby’s Prisma Pavillion, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Frozen Lakes, Artists Space, New York, US
Collapse, cur. by Valentina Suma, Fluxia Gallery, Milano
On ne connaît les chiffres que d’un côté du plan, cur. by Francois Aubart, art3, Valence
2012
La Demeure Joyeuse II, Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, Switzerland
Strange Interlude, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Profonde_Surface, curated by Francois Aubart, Shanaynay, Paris
Twin Tails: Pennacchio Argentato & Tobias Kaspar, Bischoff Projects, Frankfurt
2011
The Money Plot, Tristan Bera and Dominique Gonzalez Foerster ‘Human Valley’, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Test Transmission, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
How to Work (More for) Less, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
Based in Berlin, Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
That’s the way we do it., Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
Copy Taste, Silberkuppe, Berlin, Germany
Freaks and Geaks, curated by Castillo/Corrales, Galerie Air de Paris, Paris, France
Le bleu est à la mode cette année, Eduardo Costa, Tobias Kaspar’, Marcelle Alix, Paris, France
From Ei Arakawa to Andy Warhol, curated by Yilmaz Dziewior, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
Stipendium, Galerie Karin Günther (Reisestipendium, Neue Kunst in Hamburg E.V., cur. by Johan Holten), Germany
2010
Of Objects, Fields, And Mirrors, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
Bloodflames III, curated by Nick Mauss, Alex Zachary, New York, USA
Poésie Sonore, Galerie Andreas Huber, Vienna, Austria
2009
Neil Campbell / John Divola / Tobias Kaspar / Matthew Smith, Office Baroque Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Tiblissi 6: Never on Sunday, Tiblissi, Georgia, USA
Double Feature – Pretty Ambition, Corner College, Zurich, Switzerland
Office: Tobias Kaspar, Galerie Croy Nielsen, Berlin
Black and White Photography, with Loretta Fahrenholz and Hans-Christian Lotz, WCW Galerie, Hamburg, Germany
Three’s Company, curated by Alex Gartenfeld & Piper Marshall, New York, USA
Awards
UBS Kulturstiftung
Swiss Art Award
Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt
Reisestipendium, Verein Neue Kunst in Hamburg
Förderpreis, HFBK Hamburg
Residencies
Beijing, China, Galerie Urs Meile
Instituto Svizzero di Roma, Rome, Italy
Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Vassivières, France
BAR Project, Barcelona, Spain