Gert & Uwe Tobias

Within their practice, Gert and Uwe Tobias have revived a wide range of traditional image-making techniques—woodcut printing, low-relief sculpture, drawing using typewriters, watercolor, gouache, ceramics and lacemaking—into which they breathe new life using contemporary means. Their oeuvre is mainly influenced by the myths, costumes, crafts and commonplace motifs of their native Transylvania, subverted and fused with elements of popular culture, abstract art and contemporary graphic design. From this rich pictorial repertoire, they create a varied body of work in which legends and folk tales, carnivalesque figures and archaic elements are subject to constant metamorphoses.

Born in Romania in 1973, the twin brothers Gert and Uwe Tobias have been developing a collaborative practice since 2001. Their four-handed work bears witness to the perfect symbiosis of their individual gestures, striving towards a common goal. Today, they live and work in Cologne, Germany. The twin brothers have recently enjoyed exhibitions at the MoMA in New York, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, both in Germany, The Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum in Deurle, Belgium, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Germany, the Kupferstichkabinett at the Staatliche Kunstsammelungen in Dresden, the Maramotti Collection in Reggio Emilia in Italy and the UCLA, Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles as well as many other venues. In 2022, they were awarded the Prix du Dessin (Drawing Prize) by the Fondation d’Art Contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain.