Toby Ziegler

Toby Ziegler (b. 1972) brings together motifs derived from a wide range of sources, including photographs of the Freud family, Spanish still-life paintings, Dutch Old Masters, and nineteenth-century landscape paintings. He uses the computer to generate new forms and pictorial spaces, playing with facetted structures for his sculptures and manipulating layers of pattern for his two-dimensional works. The physical realisation of these digital forms allows mistakes and idiosyncrasies to creep into the rigorous schematic process, erasing the clear distinction between figuration and abstraction.

Ziegler revels in the slippages between the virtual and the actual, and in the physical acts of decomposing, distorting, and damaging the materials. While he provides the viewer some access to follow his path, he intentionally leaves room for personal interpretation.

His works are held in many collections, including Tate Gallery, London, The National Gallery of Canada, Francois Pinault Collection, Paris, LVMH Foundation, Paris, MONA, Tasmania, K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, and the Arts Council of England. He was the winner of the 2025 Jean Francois Prat Award, Paris.