(X) / Thomas Scheibitz

Interview with about his new exhibition at Tick Tack, Antwerp

German artist Thomas Scheibitz presents his latest solo exhibition, (X), at TICK TACK in Antwerp, running from February 14 to March 29, 2025. Known for his distinctive blend of painting and sculpture, Scheibitz deconstructs and reimagines elements from classical art, architecture, and popular culture, creating works that balance abstraction and representation. This exhibition showcases a new body of work developed over the past two years, including two monumental paintings, with Calvary as a central piece. The title, (X), symbolises the unknown, a generational marker, or a point of significance—much like a cross on a map. Through this show, Scheibitz transforms the gallery space into a dynamic arena that reaffirms his position at the forefront of contemporary art.

Can you share the inspiration behind the show’s title?

It is something that I had on my table since a long time; I have a small collection of titles, phonetic things, or fragments. So, for this exhibition I had an idea to only use ‘X’ with some grammatical symbols in the front and in the back. It’s in between a sign, a logo, and something with a double meaning, which I like. There’s generation X, a sex chromosome called X and now that infamous man with his social media platform ‘X’. I like this open meaning and also if I do a note on a paper, I mark most of them with an X.

Can you describe the “X” sculpture displayed in the window?

I never really did something for a space as I’m not a big fan of what you’d call, ‘site specific projects’. But, of course, some elements, some details are always on my mind, waiting in my studio for the right place and time. And then I saw the window of TT, and the way it’s portrayed on social media with all the images of previous exhibitions. I made a maquette of this very special space and, in the maquette, I came up with the cross. It required a little more time to be fully developed: is it a sculpture, does it have a relief, is it round, is it made of cardboard or steel, or any other material. In the end it was executed in a kind of ‘arte povera’ version, which I really liked.

“It’s in between a sign, a logo, and something with a double meaning, which I like”

With the two paintings Kalvarienberg (2025) and Landschaft#Mundus (2025), one could say you have embarked on a new path?

Since a while, I’ve been doing some experimental stuff, collage work on canvas, where I combine different techniques. I photograph still life situations in my studio with elements, fragments, sculptures, found objects, and bring everything together in a painterly image. It’s exciting for me to see these paintings in a different space for the first time, after being in my studio for more than a year now. And, yeah, we will see how it will go on.

“…a painting can hold on to a moment, but it’s difficult for a painting to hold on to time itself”

How did the idea for the ‘Haus im Haus’ sculptural installation originate?

Every sculpture I do is, more or less, empty, an empty shape or an empty form. I had this idea for the first time to fill all this emptiness with something which is related to my body of work, maybe even to me personally. You know, I weigh 90 kilograms and maybe every sculpture should weigh around 90 kilograms as well, so I filled them and did some experiments with them. I tried filling the sculptures with sugar or with a kind of liquid, something to make them heavy, more and more like me, I am what I am. And then also ‘Haus im Haus’ is like, in German we call ‘Zelle’, a cell. And inside a cell is always something that the cell needs to have, a sort of function. What do artworks – put on view – staged – display – work in progress – actually mean? Do closely combined things with walk-in elements constitute one complex situation or are they merely individual, autonomous objects presented within a small space? And do objects that seem to be performing together in a kind of chamber play create a meaningful overview, or not? All 28 objects inside: some are sculptures, some are unfinished sculptures, some are fragments, some just found objects – they are all used for other things or combination of things, functions if you will. It’s also connected to the TICK TACK exhibition space, in which you see the hand of a very unique architect. After seeing images of other shows in this space, this ‘Haus im Haus’ idea came to mind.

The basement floor is dedicated to a selection of videoworks, could you briefly elaborate on the significance of this medium in your practice?

I mean, I’m definitely not a video artist. But what we all realise, I think since a couple of years now, is that a painting can hold on to a moment, but it’s difficult for a painting to hold on to time itself, maybe if you are lucky. Some say that’s the worst part about painting, or the best part, nobody knows for sure. Anyway, video and moving images allow you to hold time, that’s why we are all so addicted to our phones now, even babies. You can see it on every street: how attractive it is to picture someone in a small frame, and I see it as something important for me to know how to handle that. I would still argue that a painting or a sculpture has a better way to show you what’s going on in the world. But I also like to see the opposite of what I’m mostly doing and how that can show me more about my stuff: my mistakes, my lucky thing, lucky punch, whatever you’d call it. And so the idea of showing three different kinds of moving image works in the TICK TACK basement appealed to me. One is a real video-work called ‘Kino’, which is the work I made on a very boring day in my studio with an existing painting called ‘Cinema’. My studio assistant helped me to make nine special frames for it. All of a sudden I realised it also raises certain questions about cubism, you know, when a canvas is totally exploding and it has space all around it. In that sense this video is a three dimensional way to see the ‘space’. Additionally, there’s a series of video sketches, something I’ve been doing almost every day, with a camera or iPhone. I think everybody is doing this: just catching the time. And then, a third type of moving image work which I find interesting, is a large presentation file that I take with me when I have to do an artist talk, to students or at a museum somewhere. I always need some visual footage behind me because these materials can better explain what I’m doing then I myself can put into words.

(X) / Thomas Scheibitz

Credits:

Interview: Alex Rashevska / @alex_rashevska
Artist : Thomas Scheibitz / @thomasscheibitz.atelier
Venue: Tick Tack / @ticktack.be
Editor: Maria Abramenko  / @mariabramenko
Assistant: Annalisa Fabbrucci / @annalisa_fabbrucci

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