Born in 1950 in Metzingen, Germany, Wolfgang Laib originally studied medicine. Disillusioned with Western medicine, he came to view the natural sciences, as well as most other modern thinking, as limited for their dependency on logic and the material world. His search led him to Eastern spiritualism, philosophy and pre-Renaissance thought. Since 1975, Laib has worked exclusively as an artist and has built an international reputation. In 2000, the American Federation of the Arts organized a retrospective, which traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Dallas Museum of Art; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2000-03). Subsequent solo museum exhibitions include the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2004); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2005-06); MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo), Mexico City (2009); The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (2009-10); and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2010). In 2013, Laib’s Pollen from Hazelnut was on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Laib Wax Room opened at The Phillips Collection in March of the same year. A major solo exhibition of his work was presented at MASI Lugano in Switzerland in 2017-18. Museo Novecento organized an exhibition at four important sites throughout Florence, including the Museo del Convento di San Marco, the Cappella dei Magi at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the Cappella Rucellai at the Museo Marino Marini, and the Cappella Pazzi, Complesso Monumentale di Santa Croce (2019-20). Other recent solo exhibitions include “Wolfgang Laib: Crossing the River” at Bündner Kunstmuseum, Switzerland (2022); “Wolfgang Laib: The Beginning of Something Else” at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2023); and “Wolfgang Laib: Passageway” at Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese (2023-24). Currently, the Musée de l'Orangerie is presenting “Wolfgang Laib. A Mountain not to climb on. For Monet” until 8 July 2024. Laib was awarded the Praemium Imperiale award for sculpture in 2015. His work is in public and private collections worldwide, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; CAPC (Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux); Kunstmuseum Bonn; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki. Laib had his first solo show at Sperone Westwater in 1979 and subsequent exhibitions in 1981, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2013 and 2018. He lives and works between Hochdorf, Germany, New York, and Ammayanayakkanur, India.