The Surreal World of Not Vital
STEEL, Sta(i)r(e), 2013 stainless steel 528 x 860 x 568 cm
Painter, sculptor, house builder, designer, explorer, philanthropist, bon vivant — the Swiss artist Not Vital sees the universe in his own singular and most elegant way.
STEEL HEAD Self-Portrait, 2013, 1/3 stainless steel 190 x 130 x 165 cm
His name is Not Vital. He was born in 1948 in eastern Switzerland. He has been around for years, quietly productive, secretly admired, but sometimes it takes a few decades for a culture to catch up with an artist. Environmental conditions have to be ready, ideas must come to fruition, and then, and only then, does the artist of that moment appear. So here in his ideal element at last is Not Vital: sculptor, painter, house builder, nomad, explorer, arranger of wonder, part-time genius of interior decoration, investor in miracles and officially the nicest man in contemporary art.
Not Vital was part of a disparate group of artists in New York in the 1980s that included Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. He’s been collected by discerning art lovers all over the world.
STEEL Moon, 2009 stainless steel ø 150 cm
Vital is part of no school or collective, yet he’s an individual who has moved with the times and has emerged as a singular thinker.
Vital's works frequently blur the boundaries between reality and the surreal.