Willi Siber: Dimension V-Baroque Nature

Willi Siber (Germany, b.1949) studied Art History at the University of Stuttgart and continues to live and work in Upper Swabia, Germany. Drawing upon the Baroque heritage and pastoral landscape of Upper Swabia, Siber distills the ornamental colour and rhythm of the Baroque, together with his profound communion with nature, into abstract works that continuously explore the plasticity of matter; interrogating form, colour, and texture, and unsettling the viewer’s visual perception. Major career retrospectives have been held at Kunsthalle Weishaupt (2026) and Museum Villa Rot (2019), establishing critical milestones in his artistic trajectory. In 2023, he received the Oberschwäbischer Kunstpreis, Germany’s prestigious cultural award. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Deutscher Bundestag, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Städtisches Kunstmuseum Singen, the German Embassy in Argentina, Deutsche Bank, Kunstwerk private museum, and Museum Ritter, among others.

“My works have always been free and independent objects; they require no narrative explanation”. This declaration is the key to entering the exhibition and the cornerstone for understanding his entire practice. The exhibition title Dimension V — Colour, Form, Material, Baroque, Nature — refers to five interwoven, mutually permeating coordinates of perception that resonate and define one another within a single work. What the viewer encounters is never a single facet, but rather an ensemble of five dimensions performing in concert across the surface of matter.

Colour, for Siber, is the breath of matter; the means by which material finds its voice. The high-gloss lacquer covering his wood and steel sculptural series is no decorative surface treatment, but the very medium through which rigid metal acquires fluidity and weighty objects gain the illusion of lightness. As light glides, like curvatures, colour ceases to be static, becoming instead a marker of time and the breath of space. Vivid orange-red, profound azure, warm gold-beige, each tonality is refined and recalibrated until it reaches a tacit accord with form itself.

Form is Siber’s most tender, yet most thorough subversion of received perception. Siber inherits Wassily Kandinsky’s investigation into the psychological resonance of line and form, and continues Piet Mondrian’s pursuit of pure geometric spirit, yet he goes further still: he allows form to become an independent language, unbound to any recognisable referent and unburdened by narrative annotation. Hardened steel is bent as if it were a drinking straw; the organic curves of wood become as weightless as silk, seemingly poised to drift away on the breeze. The viewer’s familiar sense of material weight is entirely overturned, and a delightful fissure opens between sight and touch. 

Material is the origin of Siber’s practice; the genesis of what he himself describes as “creation born of change”. Beginning with the inheritance of his father’s timber mill, he has moved fluidly between wood, steel, fibreboard, and lacquer, employing seamless welding and precision-milled craftsmanship, techniques often considered industrial to achieve forms of profound sculptural poetry. Siber immerses himself across studios of different materials, seeking every possible breakthrough. In this dimension, the artist is the one who unlocks the latent potential within.

The Baroque architectural heritage of Upper Swabia has endowed him with a natural sensitivity to opulence, rhythm, and theatrical light. The spiralling columns of church interiors, the gilded angels, the flowing draperies of clouded ceilings, these are the visual memories from his childhood and youth that have long been inscribed within him, transformed into an instinctive faith in the “beauty of abundance”. Meanwhile, the encircling forests and meadows, the mist and light of his homeland’s shifting seasons, return to him a rhythm of stillness, organic flow, and restraint. Siber re-stitches “opulence” and “nature”, categories that Western modernism long held in opposition, the former relegated to decorative “excess”, the latter exalted as humble “authenticity” into a complete and unmistakably contemporary perceptual experience. He proves that abundance can be natural, and that nature itself is the most magnificent Baroque.

Willi Siber: Dimension V — Baroque Nature will present an entirely new body of work. Featured highlights include: Tafelobjekt, (2026); the lacquered resin surface creates a visual illusion, as if the work is sinking into the wall. Wandobjekt, (2026), the sculpture takes on a role of elusive weightlessness despite its steel foundation. Bends and curves appear effortless and succinct creating a harmonious dance against the wall. Tafelobjekt (2026), the baroque palette appears in Siber’s use of deep red, blue, purple and yellow jewel-tones.

Colour, Form, Material, Baroque, and Nature function as five interwoven warp and weft threads, weaving across the surface of matter a complete perceptual universe. In an age of verbal excess and image saturation, Siber chooses to return to the most fundamental dialogue with materiality: making steel weightless, letting wood breathe, transforming colour into time, allowing nature to blossom in Baroque splendour. We warmly invite you to step into this sanctuary of perception, constructed from five intersecting dimensions; to rediscover, between matter and light, what it means to be a “free and independent object”, and to rediscover that abstract art, even in the twenty-first century, can still possess such magnificence and serenity.

Willi Siber: Dimension V – Baroque Nature 

Press Preview: Wednesday, 17 June 2026, 14:30–18:00

Opening Reception: Friday, 19 June 2026, 18:00-20:00 (The artist will be present. Open to the public)

Exhibition Dates: 19 June –  16 August 2026

Bluerider ART London · Mayfair

47 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JW

Open daily, 10:00–18:00

info.uk@blueriderart.com

T: 020 3903 7827