Thomas Zipp

Thomas Zipp (*1966, Heppenheim, Germany) explores artistic, scientific, religious, and social utopias in his works, and in doing so discusses their hopes and promises as well as their failures. In expressing his associations, he uses not only the means of painting, but also frequently those of sketching, photography, photocopying, sculpture, and object work. He prefers to assemble the various media in programmatically space-filling installations. Moreover, Thomas Zipp also actively engages in music and text production. His “narrative conceptualism” draws on a plethora of stylistic means. Therefore, his works may be interpreted at times as ironic and humorous, at times as poetic and sensual, and even somber and melancholic. The representation of the conceptual plays an essential role in Zipp’s paintings, distinguishing his paintings from loud, colorful pop paintings. Time and again, these concepts revolve around the themes of body and spirit, norm and deviation, the unconscious and the visionary. Psychological concepts, theories and research about the history of psychiatry à la Michel Foucault are Zipp’s preferred topics of interest. His examination of historic art movements such as cubism, futurism, and surrealism is always tangible in his works.

The works by Thomas Zipp are part of numerous international collections, such as Boros Collection, Berlin; Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; MOMA, New York City; The Minneapolis Institute of Art; Rubell Museum, Miami; The Federal Collection of Contemporary Art Germany, Bonn; Tate, London.