Ernst Gamperl was born in 1965 in Munich and opened his workshop in 1990.
Since 1995 he has lived and worked in Vesio di Tremosine, Italy.
2002 State of Hessen Prize, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
1999 Danner Award, Munich, Germany
1994 International Woodturning Exhibition and Competition, Victoria,Australia
Best prize of show; first prizes in four other categories
2010 Display by Arts & Science, Tokyo, Japan
2008 Scoprire il Design-Adventures with Objects, Pinakothek Agnelli, Turin, Italy
2007 Luminaire Welcomes Ernst Gamperl, Luminaire, Chicago, USA
2000 Volumes in Wood, Miyake Design Studio Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
The New Collection, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Collection Issey Miyake, Tokyo, Japan
Ernst Gamperl’s large minimalistic wood vessels – made mostly of oak, but also maple, copper beech and Italian olive tree – appear archaic, their forms and surfaces shaped to show off the properties of wood in all its power.
Self-taught, Gamperl takes a free approach to turnery. For the last twenty years, Gamperl has worked with wood in a kind of dialogue, incorporating the tree’s own branches, twists, cracks and fractures into each creation.
His sculptures’ unique expressivity derives from artistry, craftsmanship, and an ability to tell a tree’s story: its growth, its surroundings, its soil, its weather. He treats the surface of the wood – through waxing, polishing, fine striations, contrasts of reflective finishes with rough, knotty exteriors – to emphasize wood’s inherent expressive properties.
Website
www.ernst-gamperl.de
