Lost and Found - Matthias Garff, Thomas Putze

In the organizer's words:

Lost and found is the English term for lost and found office and that is exactly where Matthias Garff and Thomas Putze seem to have been rummaging around. The two junk art artists turn lost or carelessly discarded items into art. They both practice exemplary recycling, even upcycling - the result is a wild flock of animals: Birds, insects, amphibians and mammals populate the gallery - although both artists take a similar approach, their works turn out very differently.

Matthias Garff, born in 1986, sees the world with a very special eye. His ornithologically always precisely identifiable sculptures-birds seem to have appropriated the human world. They are not being pushed out of their habitats by humans. No, they have taken over the human world and consist entirely of found objects from industrial society.
In large-format collection boxes, Matthias Garff presents insect species that have not perished in the Anthropocene. No, his beetles, moths, moths and dragonflies have adapted perfectly.

Stuttgart-based artist Thomas Putze, born in 1968, not only finds industrially manufactured remnants of civilization, but also wood waste: cut branches, broken window frames, fence posts and the like. He sees a frog or bird lurking hidden in them and carves them out. In addition to his sculptural work, the artist is interested in contrasting materials, which he combines with relish. He creates hybrid creatures from wood and civilization waste. Thomas Putze's figurative inventions plunge headlong into life. They confidently confront their fate, assert themselves and leave open whether the supposed spare parts represent a handicap or an aid.
Thomas Putze's gaze is directed equally at animals and humans, whose vulnerability he makes just as visible as the will and fighting spirit with which each creature tries to meet the demands and expectations of life.

Matthias Garff and Thomas Putze are interested in the relationship between man and nature. With humor and poetry, without pointing a finger, they address topics such as species extinction and environmental pollution. You may also read criticism of consumerism here. The irrepressible optimism inherent in Garff's and Putz's animals stems precisely from this positive reaction to the modern world.

Both Garff's and Putz's works have already been shown in numerous museum and art association exhibitions and are represented in renowned collections.

Currently, 50 of Garff's animals are touring the art and natural history museums of Germany under the title Tönende Tiere (the animal voices were created by the biologist and DJ Dominik Eulberg) (until 9.9. at the Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart).