Sami Schlichting, Artist

Sami Schlichting (born 1987 in Cuxhaven, Germany) lives and works in Düsseldorf. His sculptures dwell in ambiguity. Some of them are boisterous with extended limbs, reaching out like dendrites. Others look up with mutual curiosity, as if peering back. Organic, unruly materials like straw and white, unfired clay are often combined with wood or metal parts, or wire that is bent to form an internal skeleton. This is where notions of juxtaposition and disjuncture come into play, and where a third thing arises: In a sense, it is a form of alchemy, a process whereby the material acquires another, and indivisible immaterial status and presence other from what it was. These sculptures are reminiscent of automatons, but with a form that is more organic, more disorderly than we have come to understand the physical rules and forms of artificial life.

Sami Schlichting graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2016, where he studied with Andreas Schulze and Rebecca Warren. His recent exhibitions include Dungeons & Dasein, Lucas Hirsch, Düsseldorf (with Elin Gonzalez) (2020), Spoilage #2, curated by Wschod Gallery, Warsaw, SALTS, Basel (2019), Hereafter, Mélange, Cologne (with Cezary Poniatowski) (2019), RAW, Dumont Kunsthalle, Cologne (2019), Where Do Streams Run To?, Damien & The Love Guru x Lucas Hirsch, CFAlive, Milan (2019), Prati bagnati del monte Analogo, Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Essen (2018), Jokes to run a family, Lucas Hirsch, Düsseldorf (2018).