Thomas Wachholz

01Selected Works & Installations

After Fire
After Fire 2026 — Aranya Art Center, Qinhuangdao, China
 ZackZack
ZackZack2026 — THK Gallery, Cape Town
one two three
one two three 2025 — Ruttkowski;68, Bochum
 Installation view with curved oxblood leaf-shaped wall reliefs and small bronze sculptures on white shelves
Tempo Primo2024 — Wentrup, Berlin
 Keep the Fire Burning
Keep the Fire Burning2022 — Ruttkowski;68, Cologne
 Square Dance
Square Dance2022 — THK Gallery, Cape Town
 CHA CHA CHA, Wachholz & Renggli
CHA CHA CHA, Wachholz & Renggli 2021 — Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles

02About

The phosphorus surface holds a potential. The painting is only activated by the memories the viewer brings to it.

Thomas Wachholz, born 1984 in Cologne, works with the visual language of the matchbox. Many of his paintings carry real striking surfaces. He mixes red phosphorus to his own recipe, the same compound found on the side of a matchbox, and applies it to canvas, paper and wood.

The motifs come from matchbooks and postcards he collects in hotels, restaurants and petrol stations. As these objects disappear from everyday life, they take on a quiet nostalgia. Wachholz distils their stars, grids and colour fields into reduced, precisely built paintings, a practice often described as Conceptual Pop. In recent years the matchstick has also turned into bronze: cast oversized, blackened, and balancing like figures caught mid-movement.

Wachholz studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Katharina Grosse and Marcel Odenbach and graduated as Meisterschüler in 2016. He lives and works in Cologne.

Black-and-white portrait of Thomas Wachholz seated in his studio, paintings and trestles behind him
Thomas Wachholz in his Cologne studio. Photo: Jakub Freter

03Curriculum Vitae

Selected Solo Exhibitions

  • 2025one, two, three, Ruttkowski;68, Bochum
  • 2024Tempo Primo, Wentrup & Nino Mier Gallery, Berlin
  • 2022Keep the Fire Burning, Ruttkowski;68, Cologne
  • 2022Square Dance, THK Gallery, Cape Town
  • 2022Keep the fire burning, Galerie Ruttkowski;68, Cologne
  • 2021CHA CHA CHA, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2021Let’s Get Lit, Wachholz & Renggli, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin
  • 2020Allumettes Amorphes, Ruttkowski;68, Paris
  • 2019Books and Boxes, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2018Soft Painting, Galerie Lange + Pult, Zurich
  • 2016Strike Gently, Mier Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2015Whiteout, Nymphius Projekte, Berlin
  • 2014Reibfläche, RaebervonStenglin, Zurich
  • 2014Alcohol Works, Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles

Collections

  • Deji Art Museum, Nanjing
  • Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles
  • Frost Foundation, Santa Fe
  • Scheryn Collection, Cape Town
  • The Kilbourn Collection, South Africa
  • Ardi Goldman Kunst- und Kulturstiftung

Education

  • 2016Meisterschüler, Prof. Katharina Grosse, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
  • 2012–16Kunstakademie, Prof. Walter Dahn, HBK Braunschweig
  • 2011–16Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Klassen Marcel Odenbach & Katharina Grosse
  • 2006–11Communication design, University of applied Science Düsseldorf

Representation

04News

05Contact

Studio Cologne. Enquiries via Studio Thomas Wachholz

@thomaswachholz

Representation