Erwin Wurm has established himself internationally as one of the most well-known contemporary artists. Interested in the everyday, he critically engages with the concept of consumer society through the sculptural, seeking to speak to the essence of modern society and human beings. “Everything is connected to everything else”, states the artist’s motto, under which his first-ever solo exhibition in Latvia operates. Collecting his key works from different periods, the Erwin Wurm: How It Is exhibition opens at the Zuzeum Art Centre in Riga on June 13th, 2025.
Wurm has spent the past four decades redefining sculpture, pushing its boundaries through humour, philosophy, and the absurd. At the core of his work lies a deep exploration of the “sculptural”, not only as a physical form but as a conceptual lens through which to investigate society. Wurm’s practice engages with the structures of everyday life – its objects, rituals, and contradictions – to provoke reflection on how we live and think.
The upcoming exhibition at Zuzeum Art Centre showcases works from across Wurm’s career. The title, taken from Samuel Beckett’s homonymous novel, foregrounds Wurm’s philosophical approach and the existential undercurrent in his work. Wurm’s sculptural language encompasses mass, skin, volume, and time.
In his newer series, such as Substitutes, he further explores these dimensions. Here, garments crafted from painted aluminium stand independent from their wearers, embodying social codes and identities. Recurring motifs, such as clothing, housing, and food, serve as metaphors for modern anxieties and consumer pressures. Criticising compulsive consumerism, his mind gives physical form to the abstraction of thought and the hazy, irrational world of the subconscious.
Pieces like Fat Convertible and Fat House play with volume and form to reflect on consumption, desire, and bodily transformation. Wurm sees changing volume – whether through sculptural addition or subtraction – as essential to both physical and conceptual transformation. “The question that has pervaded my work for four decades now is the following: can I use the idea of the sculptural to process everyday life and our time and to gain a new perspective or a new possibility for interpretation?”, Wurm explains.
He considers the human body a malleable bridge between the organic and the artificial, a central motif in his influential One Minute Sculptures. Begun in the late 1990s, the artist came to prominence with this series, which invites viewers to become living sculptures by posing with everyday objects based on instructions. These ephemeral works effectively challenge the line between performance and sculpture, spectator and participant. Their absurdity reveals the surreal within the ordinary, prompting questions about identity, consumerism, and social norms.
In his performative pieces, he sometimes introduces destruction as an artistic gesture, which, paired with his use of humour, morphs beyond mere entertainment into a critical device. Laced with wit, he exposes the absurdities of modern life, illustrating how familiar structures and objects conceal complex cultural and psychological narratives.
Ultimately, Erwin Wurm’s practice is about discovery and reinterpretation. He invites us to reconsider what constitutes a sculpture, a body, a routine, or even a thought. Through a unique combination of figuration, satire, and inquiry, he reclaims the everyday as a site for transformation. “The ordinary is so close and so familiar to us”, Wurm says, “that we overlook it”. In drawing attention to the overlooked, he opens new spaces for reflection, imagination, and critique. “Looking at the ordinary from the perspective of the absurd and the paradox gives us the opportunity to see something different, perhaps more interesting”.
The Zuzeum Art Centre in Riga is hosting Wurm’s exhibition How It Is, from June 13 to September 14, 2025. Zuzeum is a contemporary art centre engaging with contemporary Latvian and international art, housing the Zuzāns Collection, the largest private collection of Latvian art in the world. Founded by art collector and philanthropist Jānis Zuzāns in 2020, it is located in the historic centre of Riga.
Erwin Wurm lives and works in Vienna and Limberg, Austria. He has twice participated in the Venice Biennale, representing Austria in 2017. His solo exhibitions include Vancouver Art Gallery (2019), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2020), Suwon Museum of Art (2022), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2023), SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2023–24), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2023–24), and Albertina Modern (2024), amongst others.
Erwin Wurm: How It Is
June 13 – September 14, 2025
Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga, Latvia
