Artist: Raphael Hefti

Mai 36 Galerie presents the first solo exhibition by Swiss artist Raphael Hefti. Known for his distinctive intersection of industrial process and artistic transformation, Hefti brings to the gallery a body of work that probes the hidden logic of materials, and the beauty that emerges when that logic is deliberately undone.

Hefti’s practice is fuelled by a deep fascination with industrial and post-industrial processes, which he reclaims, subverts, and transforms with an almost alchemical precision. Working in close dialogue with industries and specialists, he investigates the fragility of materials by interfering with their original composition — exposing the hidden truths embedded within conventional techniques. The result is a sculptural language that hovers between control and chaos, functionality and failure, the engineered and the uncanny.

At the core of this work lies a joyful, almost irreverent curiosity: a drive to reveal what objects conceal. Whether pursuing chemical reactions, optical phenomena, or the precise moment a material exceeds its tolerance, Hefti navigates the no-man's-land where industrial certainty gives way to poetic accident. His sculptures do not merely document these processes — they embody them, holding within their surfaces the trace of transformation.

About the Artist
Raphael Hefti (b. 1978, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland) studied at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (1998–2002) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2009–2011). He is the recipient of the Prix Mobilière (2015) and the Manor Kunstpreis Biel (2014).

Selected solo exhibitions include Salutary Failures, Kunsthalle Basel (2021); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2017); On Core / Encore, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles; OR OR OR ?, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève (2015); Nature More, CAPC, Bordeaux (2013); and Launching Rockets Never Get Old, Camden Arts Centre, London (2012). In 2025, he participated in Desert X, Palm Desert, USA.