Grotto (from Catalogue Serpentine Gallery, Collector’s Edition) by Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand is a conceptual artist who is mostly known for his photographs of 3D models. Born in Munich, Germany in 1964, he currently teaches at Hamburg’s University of Fine Arts. He held his first exhibition in 1992. The sculptures he photographs are often made to resemble real rooms, which exhibit features of social and political significance. The photographs he makes of these sculptures have been exhibited in many galleries and museums across the globe. Often, these photographs are related to already-existing images in the media of cultural and political events. This is one reason why he describes himself as a conceptual artist, rather than as a photographer or a sculptor. He almost never depicts people in his work, and keeps text out of his images. He usually destroys his sculptures after he has made a satisfactory photograph of them. In the 1990s and 2000s he began to experiment with film, making references to cultural events like the death of Princess Diana, and the increasing presence of surveillance cameras in public areas. He was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2011, and received an honorary doctorate from London’s Royal College of Art in 2012. Thomas Demand lives in Berlin and Los Angeles.

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