After Frankfurt’s geometric lines and Berlin’s hazy miniatures, we head to one of contemporary art’s most deceptive and intellectual stops: Sprüth Magers in the heart of Berlin. The Thomas Demand solo exhibition, opening on 2 May for Gallery Weekend Berlin and running until 1 August 2026, heralds a revolutionary technical transformation in the artist’s career.
Thomas Demand has always been known for constructing paper copies of reality. This time, however, his monumental paper models appear not merely as photographic frames, but on a material deeply rooted in the history of art: copper.
The Paper Construction of Reality: Thomas Demand’s Method
In Thomas Demand’s (b. 1964) world, nothing is as it seems. He takes photographs of spaces with historical, political, or cultural significance (or ordinary moments), then reconstructs these scenes at full scale in his studio using paper and cardboard.
He then photographs the models and destroys the original construction. What remains is an image that looks utterly real, but upon closer inspection reveals the sterile, flawless, and textureless surface of paper. Demand tells us: “What you see is not a room, but a paper construction of a room.”
From the Renaissance to Artificial Intelligence: Prints on Copper
Since 2025, Demand has made a radical shift in his practice, beginning to print his works on silver-coated copper plates or directly onto copper. The choice of this material is no coincidence:
- Art Historical Legacy: Copper was used as a support during the Renaissance.
- The Dawn of Photography: The earliest examples of photography, daguerreotypes, were printed on silver-coated copper plates.
In this new series, Demand transfers a wide spectrum — from the random arrangements of nature to abstractions of dystopian images generated by artificial intelligence — onto these metallic surfaces. The brightness and depth of copper add a new ontological layer to Demand’s constructed worlds.
The Paradox of Perception: Real or Illusion?
The exhibition leaves the viewer with a fundamental question: How do we read our surroundings? How does our memory deceive us? Demand’s works walk the fine line between sculpture and photography, reality and interpretation. The combination of AI-generated fake images with Demand’s fake paper models offers a shattering critique of today’s manipulated visual world.
Prepare your calendar for what is expected to be one of the most talked-about exhibitions of Berlin Gallery Weekend:
Dates: 2 May 2026 – 1 August 2026
Venue: Sprüth Magers, Berlin
Important: The exhibition features entirely new and small-scale copper works developed by the artist between 2025 and 2026.
