Ernst Gamperl
£59.00
Ernst Gamperl – Sarah Myerscough Gallery, UK
10 Oct — 29 Nov 2025
Sarah Myerscough Gallery is delighted to announce Urkraft, a major solo exhibition by renowned artist Ernst Gamperl that will inaugurate its new gallery space, a magnificent three storey-Victorian schoolhouse on 18 Balderton Street in Mayfair, London. Opening on 10 October 2025, this landmark presentation will be the first solo show in the UK dedicated to Gamperl, who has revolutionised woodturning by developing new methods that push the practice’s technical limits.
The exhibition will feature approximately 30 sculptural vessels turned from ash, oak, and maple. These new works mark a significant evolution in Gamperl’s practice, introducing what he calls his dancers—pieces with expanded, open apertures that push the limits of the material’s tensile strength and density. Alongside these are new slender, vertical sculptures mounted on metal bases, evoking the spirit of Giacometti’s figures in their poised, expressive form.
Three years in the making, Urkraft celebrates Gamperl’s unparalleled skill and deep material intelligence. Each sculpture is unique in tonality and silhouette, shaped through an intimate dialogue with the wood. Working as both artist and botanist, Gamperl treats the surface with natural elements sourced from his Bavarian homestead—using local clay and garden dust to create earthy, tactile finishes. His practice is a meditative exchange with nature, a choreography of form, time, and transformation.
The exhibition follows two major institutional shows in Germany: Ernst Gamperl – Project Tree of Life at the Bavarian National Museum, Munich (15 May – 5 October 2025), and Ernst Gamperl – Transformation und Bewegung (Retrospective) at Galerie Handwerk, Crafts Council Munich (27 June – 2 August 2025).
Coinciding with the exhibition, Sarah Myerscough Gallery is proud to announce the publication of Urkraft: Ernst Gamperl, the artist’s second monograph, produced in collaboration with 5 Continents Editions. The volume traces the artist’s 40-year career and includes contributions from Antonia Boström, Sarah Myerscough, Michele De Lucchi, and Frank Matthias Kammel. The gallery is a major sponsor of the publication and will release a special edition with a unique cover. A London book launch will take place in October 2025, featuring a conversation between Antonia Boström and Ernst Gamperl.
The relationship Ernst Gamperl, an artist of international renown, has developed with wood as a living material and the acknowledgment of inescapable serendipity are a source of creative inspiration as well as the driving forces behind his work – a work revolving around the artist’s deep connection with nature and respect for his raw material. The wood worked by Gamperl sometimes comes from majestic trees tens or even hundreds of years old – grown in nature, it is nature that has often sent these unmistakable creatures crashing down.
Trees are an integral part of creation, symbols of life and strength that Gamperl has studied and “perceived” for many years in symbiosis with their essence and nature. His ability to combine an unconventional approach to the material with a revolutionary technique and an original interpretation honed over many years results in works that stand out for their elegance and charisma. Gamperl stretches technique to its limits in creating powerful sculptures that unfailingly stir the viewer, who discovers something never before encountered.
Text in English, Italian and German.
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