Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand is known for his photographs of meticulous paper models that reconstruct scenes charged with historical, political, and cultural significance, as well as everyday moments. On the occasion of Gallery Weekend Berlin, Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Demand. In 2025, he began working with a new technique, creating smaller-scale images printed on copper. The material has deep roots in art history: In the fifteenth century, goldsmiths' techniques of engraving precious metals were adapted to copper plates for the purpose of making reproducible prints, with etching on copper following in the sixteenth century. Across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was also favoured as a painting support by artists including Jan Brueghel the Elder, Adam Elsheimer, David Teniers the Younger, and Nicolas Poussin. Its smooth surface made it suited to fine detail, and its durability helped it resist some of the deterioration associated with canvas or wood. In the nineteenth century, copper also served as the support for the daguerreotype, the earliest commercially successful photographic process, in which light acted on a silver-coated plate to produce an image. It is therefore a material that engages with the histories of both painting and photography.