Lori Hersberger was born in 1964 in Basel. He studied Video Art and Sculpture at the Basel School of Art and Design.
At the beginning of the nineties he started creating environments and installations, initially combined with video, later with different kinds of media like mirror glass, painting with fluorescent paint, neon light, and chrome steel. He quickly devoted himself to a wide spectrum of different, seemingly incompatible media and subject matter. His works are characterized by a direct artistic language and, while many trigger a strong affirmative impression, subversive potential. In different installations, as well as in his painting and sculptures, he takes up a range of topics such as hybrid emotionalism and the twofold semantic nature of phenomena such as the phantom-like.
Starting in 2000, Lori Hersberger extended his artistic work to abstract painting, and since then has viewed himself exclusively as a painter and sculptor. His art stresses the opposition between the world of illusion and that of reality, yet at the same time alludes to the space between them. In this sense, his works are both sublime and grotesque – a combination that is also clearly expressed in his current exhibitions.
Lori Hersberger lives and works in Zürich.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
- Ex Nihilo, Galerie Clemens Gunzer, Zurich
- Lori Hersberger with Anja Schwörer, Botschaft, Berlin
2015
- Mystery Poster, Transformer Station, Bidwell Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio
- I Would Tather Go Blind, Clemens Gunzer Halle, Wädenswil-Zurich
- Galerie Maruani & Mercier, Brussels
2014
- Things To Shape, Galerie Clemens Gunzer, Kitzbühel
- Structural Evaluation, Galeria Casado Santapau, Madrid
2013
- Totem, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt
- Reflections, Galerie Maruani & Noirhomme, Knokke
- Heroic Nihilism, Kunsthalle Giessen, Giessen
- Bag Day, Galerie Clemens Cunzer, Zürich
- Mystery Posters, Laleh June Gallery
- MMKK Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt
COLLECTIONS
- Julius Bär Kunstsammlung, Zurich
- Sammlung Schaufler, Schauwerk Sindelfingen
- Kunstsammlung HypoVereinsbank, Munich
- Sammlung Credit-Suisse, Zurich
- UBS Union Bank of Switzerland, Basel
- Hauser & Wirth Collection, Henau
- Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen
- Museum of Art, Lucerne
- Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel und Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung Schweizerische Nationalbank, Zurich
- Sammlung Nationale Suisse, Zurich
- Fortis SA, Bruxelles
- Roland Berger Art Collection, Zurich
- Sammlung Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg i. Br.
- Mont-Blanc International, Cutting Edge Art Collection, Hamburg
- Museum Würth, Künzelsau
- Sammlung Moderne Kunst, Stiftung Charles u. Agnes Voegele, Rapperswil Sammlung Ernst & Young, Munich
- Fondazione Ghisla Art Collection, Locarno
AWARDS
- 2009 P.A.I.R. Peach Artists in Residence, Wollerau (CH)
- 2007 Stiftung Landis & Gyr, Zug, Werksemester / Residency, London
- 2001 Manor-Artprize / Manor-Kunstpreis, Basel
- 2000 Swiss Art Award / Eidgenössischer Preis für Freie Kunst
- 1999 Swiss Art Award / Eidgenössischer Preis für Freie Kunst
- 1996 Artprize / Kunstpreis Alexander-Clavel-Stiftung Riehen
- 1996 Artist grant / Künstlerstipendium Basel-Stadt
- 1994 Cité Internationale des Arts Paris
- 1990 Artprize / Werkpreis Kunst-Stadt Basel
