This major exhibition is Erwin Wurm’s first museum show in the UK and presents sculpture, painting, photographs, video and drawings.
This major exhibition is Erwin Wurm’s first museum show in the UK and presents sculpture, painting, photographs, video and drawings. Including a number of large sculptures made especially for YSP, Wurm challenges perceptions of the everyday, continuing his exploration of the sensible, the disruption of the body and familiar materials, and the animation of the inanimate. One of Austria’s most prominent artists, Wurm (b.1954) rose to fame in the 1990s with his One Minute Sculptures, an ongoing series of works that combines performance and everyday objects to capture a moment in time when a participant activates the work.
Outdoors, new sculptures from the Skins and Avatar series reflect the artist’s interest in fashion as a representation of a particular time, and the psychological suggestion of clothing becoming the wearer’s second skin. Giants, sculptures from the Abstract series (2014-18), render anthropomorphised sausage forms in bronze and reference the wiener, or hot dog, that takes its name from Austria’s capital, Vienna. Wurm interprets many popular food items in his sculpture. Perhaps the most iconic of these is the gherkin, or pickled cucumber, with which he has a longstanding fascination, represented by the four-metre-high bronze Der Gurk (2016).
The exhibition springboards a programme of engagement activity centred around play, the exploration of materials in relation to the body and everyday objects, and experimentation of making processes.

Get a National Art Pass and explore Yorkshire Sculpture Park
You'll see more art and your membership will help museums across the UK
National Art Pass offers available at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
10% off in shop
Expires: 1 Jan 2024
How to get there
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF4 4LG
01924 832631
Opening times
Winter daily, 10am – 5pm
Summer daily, 10am – 6pm
From 6 November – 24 March, YSP is closed on Mondays (excluding school and Bank Holidays) and 24 – 25 December.
Exclusions and safety measures
Book your tickets and plan your visit at ysp.org.uk
How to get there
What else is on at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Exhibitions nearby
The more you see, the more we do.
The National Art Pass lets you enjoy free entry to hundreds of museums, galleries and historic places across the UK, while raising money to support them.