Sculpture Today: With works by: Alÿs, Bajević, Caniaris, Los Carpinteros, Deplazes, Doherty, Favre, Hänsli, Ikemura, Leutenegger, Macchi, Modé, Shahbazi, Spichtig, William, and Zmijewski

Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Zahnradstrasse 21, Zurich

Galerie Peter Kilchmann is pleased to conclude the exhibition year at its premises on Zahnradstrasse with the group exhibition SKULPTUR HEUTE (SCULPTURE TODAY). Contributions from the following artists are on display: Francis Alÿs, Maja Bajević, Vlassis Caniaris, Los Carpinteros, Andriu Deplazes, Willy Doherty, Valérie Favre, Christoph Hänsli, Leiko Ikemura, Zilla Leutenegger, Jorge Macchi, Shirana Shahbazi, Tobias Spichtig, Didier William, Artur Żmijewski.

The exhibition opens with works by Zilla Leutenegger (*1968 in Zurich; lives and works in Zurich and Soazza): several small ceramic works and the new video installation Lavabobo (2025). In the latter, the video is only a fleeting moment—the focus lies on the sculptural presence of the work. On the wall, a grid of black lines on white paper can be seen, reminiscent of tiles, between which simple kitchen utensils are suggested. A small ceramic sink is mounted beneath, its hose continually releasing projected water droplets. From fragments of the everyday life, Zilla creates spaces out of memory. Lines, light, and materiality intersect: the drawing extends into the space, and the video becomes physically tangible. This generates a condensation in which time and perception merge—a subtle, playful shift of reality.

Leiko Ikemura (born in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, Japan; lives and works in Berlin) is represented by three reclining sculptures: Lying on the Lake (2017), Velvet Girl (2021/23), and Liegende (Reclining Figure) (2025). All three depict a girl lying on her side, rendered either in bronze or in glass. The figure embodies far more than an image of sleep. It conveys states of transition—between childhood and adulthood, repose and tension, enclosure and openness, the imaginary and the real. Through reduction and suggestion, the girl becomes a metaphor for existence—less an individual than a universal being. Ikemura is concerned with the question of “where we come from and how we might arrive in reality.” Depending on the light and time of day, the glass sculpture Velvet Girl, for instance, changes its color, shifting along a spectrum from pale grey to delicate pink, at times appearing soft as cotton and at others hard as stone.

Artur Żmijewski (*1966 in Warsaw, where he lives and works) presents three black-and-white photographs from the series Red Army (2023). The works were taken by Żmijewski at the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw and depict sections of the two sculptural groups Heroism and Sacrifice by the sculptors Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and Stanisław Lisowski, which form part of the conflict-laden monument honoring the Red Army. The artist has fragmentarily overlaid the details of the stone-carved figures, thereby detaching them from their site-specific context and imbuing them with a new layer of meaning.

Three new fragile sculptures in white plaster by the artist Valérie Favre (*1959 in Switzerland; lives and works between Berlin and Neuchâtel) are on display. Each is titled Lapine univers rau (2025), yet they differ in size and form. Favre has brought her renowned alter ego from the Lapine Univers series, which she began in the early 2000s, literally from the two-dimensional plane into three-dimensional space.