Lori Hersberger Biography
The Swiss artist Lori Hersberger lives and works in Zurich. Calling him an installation artist is reductive, as much as classifying him only as a painter, since since the beginning of his career he has dedicated himself to multiple expressive means.
Born in Basel in 1964, he studied Visual Arts and Sculpture at the Basel School of Arts and Design. In the 1990s he began creating environments and installations, initially integrated with video, later with different types of media such as mirrors, fluorescent paint, neon lights and chromed steel. He quickly devoted himself to a vast spectrum of different and seemingly incompatible media, his works are characterized by a strong visual impact. In several installations, as well as in his paintings and sculptures, he addresses a variety of themes such as the double semantic nature of natural phenomena. Lori Hersberger's art highlights the opposition between illusion and reality. In this sense, his works appear both sublime and grotesque. Starting from 2000, Lori Hersberger approaches abstract painting without abandoning the installation dimension.
Lori Hersberger has received numerous awards, including the Swiss Art Prize (1999 and 2000) and the Basel Manor Art Prize (2001). Her works have been exhibited in many institutions and museums, including the MAC Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, where in 2008 she presented her largest solo exhibition to date, entitled Lori Hersberger - Phantom Studies, featuring steel sculptures deformed and large installations with neon lights and mirrors, or in other solo exhibitions at, among others, the Kunsthaus Zurich in 2003. Furthermore, he has exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Basel, the MMKK Art Museum Moderna of Carinthia in Klagenfurt, the Kunsthalle Giessen, the Kunsthalle Basel and the Swiss Institute in New York. His major installations have been exhibited as part of thematic exhibitions at the 48th Venice Biennale, the Kunsthalle Vienna, the ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art in Karlsruhe, the SMAK Stedelijk Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent, the Lucerne Art Museum and at the St. Gallen Art Museum. His works are included in many collections in Switzerland, Europe and the United States and numerous installations in public spaces.
