Erwin Wurm

(Austrian, born 1954)

Erwin Wurm is a contemporary Austrian artist working across several media. Wurm’s comical attitude towards representation features heavily in his Fat Car series, in which ge purposefully disfigures car models deemed status symbols by mass culture. “[For me] humor is primarily a method for getting people’s attention—it should ultimately prompt people to look at things more carefully,” the artist has reflected. Born on July 27, 1954 in Bruck an der Mur, Austria, Wurm went on to study at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Following in the tradition of Joseph Beuys, the artist has contributed his own take on the medium of sculpture with his One Minute Sculptures. In these performances, Wurm invites audience participation and interaction to reevaluate the medium. His works have been shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Vienna, the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Wurm currently lives and works between Vienna and Limburg, Austria. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Albertina in Vienna, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.