🍄 BIG FUNGUS 🍄
a group show developed by Tobi Keck



Alex Gehrke, Alex


Alexandra Börner, Toi Toi Toy


Anaïs Goupy, She'll


Andrea Barzaghi, A long way from home


Andrew Rutherdale, Scrying glass


Brigita Kasperaite, Locals


Cyryl Polaczek, Garden of Earthly
Delights - The Mushroom Picker‘s Hell


Don Elektro, Proxima Centauri
B Breakfast


Emma Pidre & synthtati, Death angel


Florian Witt & Vincent Kück,
Incident vMV7S


Hannes Uhlenhaut, Lowguru


Helen Hetzel, I walked a lonely road,
the one that did not take me home


Isa Schieche, Toadstool


Jeronim Horvat, Eternal Wellfare Model


Johanna Blank, Dress


Josefine Schulz, Mucki


Julia Kiehlmann, Schirmchen, Stürmchen


Karolina Jablonska, Hands


Kirill Ivlev, Morgenstund


Konrad Hanke, Shroom lootbox


Lars Fischer, BOOM BOOM FALL OUT


Layla Nabi, Zigarettenautomat


Lisa Wölfel, ShroomStamps (Herbert, Pilzstrauß,
bat wide awake)


Markus Heller, He has left the village
Marten Schech, Nr. 1, Nr. 2


Matti Schulz, Fliegenpilz
(fly mushroom)


Maya Hottarek, Ok bye


Melo Börner, Trashures


Michael Eppler, 4 Hornisten


Miguel Martin, I AM
WITH YOU ALWAYS


Minor Alexander, radix nivis


Moritz Liebig, Mushroommassaker


Myriam Mayer, Untitled (Indigo)


Nadja Kurz, Self Portrait


Nicholas Aloisio Shearer, Stop Caring.
That‘s
literally all you have to do.


Paul Barsch, Untitled (Mondos)


Ronny Szillo, Infinite Love 2020


Suntje Sagerer, Friedenstaube 1 & 2


Theresa Rothe, dumpy mite


Till Hunger, der Ritter


Tilman Hornig, untitled (sad)


Tobi Keck, Twee Hugger


Tomasz Krecicki, Little delivery


Torre Alain, a thing of immortal make


Weazl, Dump Him


Twee Whistler, theres so mushroom
in my heart for you


Willy Schulz, Gentleman Prawn


Winnie Seifert, swamp (L), species (R)



I remember, back in the days, when i was a child, my father used to take me to the forests, to gather mushrooms with him for a nice self-hunted dinner. In that Alps area where we lived, it is kind of a common sport, which nearly everybody does. Almost strange, not to do it. In late summer and during fall, you just go for some little walk to your nearest woods, pick some Steinpilze and Maroons and have a little home-soil- flavor on your dish.

Just recently i realized, that to me, already as a child, the strongest sense about those strange little things wasn‘t so much of their kitchen-value. The main fascination towards the fungi was that intense image they created in my mind, due to their strong visual power. When i was sitting and browsing through that old guide books (which nobody ever really used) about edible and poisonous mushrooms, i remember myself idolyzing that perfect pictures of all kinds of majestic shrooms. I remember how they looked like tall colorful trees - at least 30 cm - like from a fairytale. What a shame it was, cutting up all these adorable and endlessly beautiful creatures or plants or whatever they were, into boring bite-sized pieces like some potatos and consume them :/

Later in my 90s childhood, there were cartoon shows like Biene Maja or The Smurfs (a.k.a. Les Schtroumpfs / Die Schlümpfe) on TV, that picturized tiny worlds with friendly talking insects and snails and magic woods and mushrooms big enough to live in. At the same time, the great era of the Super Nintendo and the all fungus-based world of Super Mario and the Toadstool-Kingdom, took a deep impact into my hungry little imagination back then. Ever since, mushrooms have been omni-present, just as they actually are. And i never stopped cultivating that old personal tradition of going for a mushroom hunt, that i grew up with.

In the summer of 2021, there was a short viral period of the so called #Shroomjak on instagram and the internet in general. It‘s always a matter of random coincidence why things or memes go viral. But the success of Shroomjak, this simple and silly, human- faced mushroom, may be not so much of a surprise after all. The indisputable popularity of mushrooms obviously gave a crucial basis for the catchiness of a picture like that.

Gathering this huge crowd of artists and accompanying their tiny works with this great variety of all sorts of mushrooms felt like recreating the whole of those fantastic popcultural memories. Finally the fungi grew huge like i always imagined. And the usual human-sized world of ours got shrunken into dimensions of where you can meet bugs and relax under a parasol that is a fruit of the mycelium. After all, i realized that the line up of this international group of artists became some sort of fungal network itself, spreading and revealing their blooming fruit over a global range from the depth of the ground.

An Ode to the Fungus
Text by Tobi Keck, November 2021


Andrew Rutherdale, Hannes Uhlenhaut, Maya Hottarek, Tobi Keck, Lisa Wölfel, Theresa Rothe, Markus Heller, Myriam Mayer, Marten Schech Torre Alain Jeronim Horvat, Moritz Liebig, Miguel Martin, Don Elektro, Melo Börner, Emma Pidré & synthtati Johanna Blank Florian Witt & Vincent Kück, Helen Hetzel, Andrea Barzaghi, Nadja Kurz, Konrad Hanke, Michael Eppler, Suntje Sagerer, Josefine Schulz, Alex Gehrke, twee_whistler Anaïs Goupy, Layla Nabi, Cyryl Polaczek, Tomasz Kręcicki, Karolina Jabłońska, Lars Fischer, Till Hunger, Willy Schulz, Tilman Hornig, Kirill Ivlev, Winnie Seifert, Weazl, Isa Schieche, #JuliaKiehlmann, Matti Schulz, Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer, Ronny Szillo, Brigita Kasperaitė, Alexandra Börner, Paul Barsch, Minor Alexander,

Installed and photographed by Tobi Keck



🍄 BIG FUNGUS: a group show 🍄