20.06.21 – 07.11.21
Surface Alchemy


Peter Bauhuis; Laurenz Stockner
Metal in all its facets: “Surface Alchemy” [Alchemie der Oberfläche] uses works by three different artists to show how experimental curiosity and a creative approach to materials research can enable metal’s physical limits to be tested and its visual appearance transformed in myriad ways.
The exhibition presents archaic-looking vessels cast from various metal alloys by the Munich-based artist and goldsmith Peter Bauhuis (*1965). Laurenz Stockner (*1971), the South Tyrolean artist, exhibits bowls that he forges from a mixture of “cement copper” (smelted by himself) and iron; his wafer-thin copper bowls are also on display. The works by Swiss artist and metal caster Anita Tarnutzer (*1977) include bronze and brass panels that have been coloured by means of vegetable dyes and natural oxidation processes.
Throughout history, a huge range of methods have been used to refine, colour or coat metals for all kinds of reasons. A special presentation entitled “edel unedel”, mounted by Sitterwerk St. Gallen and Bern University of the Arts, provides helpful information about the multiplicity of processes employed, supplemented by the resources of the MATERIAL ARCHIV at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur.
The exhibition presents archaic-looking vessels cast from various metal alloys by the Munich-based artist and goldsmith Peter Bauhuis (*1965). Laurenz Stockner (*1971), the South Tyrolean artist, exhibits bowls that he forges from a mixture of “cement copper” (smelted by himself) and iron; his wafer-thin copper bowls are also on display. The works by Swiss artist and metal caster Anita Tarnutzer (*1977) include bronze and brass panels that have been coloured by means of vegetable dyes and natural oxidation processes.
Throughout history, a huge range of methods have been used to refine, colour or coat metals for all kinds of reasons. A special presentation entitled “edel unedel”, mounted by Sitterwerk St. Gallen and Bern University of the Arts, provides helpful information about the multiplicity of processes employed, supplemented by the resources of the MATERIAL ARCHIV at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur.