Edition
Toni Schmale
kleine metallarbeit, lochblech

Toni Schmale has forged ten unique metal sculptures that, in their scale and materiality, recall votive plaques. Historically, these objects function as religious offerings made from hammered metal such as gold, silver or bronze. Votive plaques in pilgrimage churches, such as those in the Basilica of Mariazell, representing body parts like the heart, lungs, arms or legs, serve as one point of reference, as does the industrially standardised perforated sheet.

In kleine metallarbeit, lochblech (2026), a welled opening in a metal plate takes the form of a relief. As in Schmale’s work for the Lebt und arbeitet in Wien exhibition, triptychon, 1/3 circlusion (2026), the edition similarly alludes to the human body with a minimal aesthetic. The repetition of the hole is a recurring element in Schmale’s work. The orifice is subtly suggestive as the artist courses devotion and desire though a quintessentially hard material, embracing and subverting aesthetic and material contradictions in sculpture.

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