1 December 2025 – 25 February 2026
Studio 531 Architect Window Gallery
546 Herald Street, Victoria
24/7 viewing from street
About the Artist and Work:
Derk Wolmuth, a sculptor and installation artist, grew up on Vancouver Island’s south coast in western Canada. Involved with sailing from a young age and later influenced by 1980s punk critique, he inhabiting many DIY living spaces in transitional zones. After completing a degree in Philosophy (Trent University 1996) where he studied Continental and Oriental thought he then integrated a period of deep psychological reflection with the material practice of woodworking. As a visuals arts undergraduate (Emily Carr Institute 2005), he was influenced by Post-minimalism, Arte-Povera, and conceptual strategies. As a MFA student (Carnegie Mellon University 2011), he was influenced by Kinetic Art, Institutional Critique, Relational Aesthetics, and the Land Art movements. Notably from 2012-2020 he embarked on a solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean aboard a 32-foot sailboat named ‘Bartók’.
Wolmuth’s installations and mixed-media sculptures frequently incorporate modified manufactured objects, wood, metal, electro-mechanical components, lighting, and audio. He invites viewers in with theatrical gestures, then subjects us to possible conditions of threat. His sculptures are crafted with an austerity that focuses us on fears, compulsions, and embodiment. With glimpses of the uncanny, his sculptures leave one suspended within uncertainty. His works engages us bodily and conceptually, implicating us within the hypnotic agency of things.