Oscar Enberg’s sculpture and painting practice is preoccupied with the ways in which class and taste are distilled in objects. Drawing from both official and anecdotal histories, with a particular interest in the domestic and diminutive, Enberg creates work that emerges from a distinctly continental milieu. Across an idiosyncratic and often times arcane studio-based practice, the artist muses on the perversions of class, conservatism and tradition. Engaging with longstanding and increasingly precarious modes of ‘Handwerk’, and regularly collaborating with craftspeople and artisans, Enberg’s work is at once recognisable and strange, operating in the uncanny between the mundane and perverse.

Oscar Enberg (b. 1988 in Christchurch, New Zealand) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Education

He studied at the Canterbury University Ilam School of Fine Arts, Christchurch.

Exhibitions

Selected solo and duo exhibitions include Super Super Markt, Berlin (2025); Peles, Berlin (2024 with Daniel Sinsel); Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington (2024); Brunette Coleman, London; The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ, London (both 2023); Mackintosh Lane, London (2022 with Nigin Beck); Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington (2022); Mossman, Wellington; Stadium, Berlin; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (all 2019); Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland (2018); Frankfurt am Main, Berlin (2017); and North Sculpture Terrace, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2016).

Enberg's work has been included in group exhibitions at Heidi, Berlin; BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne (both 2025); Union Pacific, London (2023); Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington (both 2022); HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Graz (2021); Pina, Vienna; S.M.A.K, Ghent (both 2018); Kunstverein München, Munich; Palazzo Lancia, Turin; Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland (all 2017); and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015).

Collections

Oscar Enberg's work is part of public collections. These include Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; and The Arts House Trust, Auckland.

2024

In the studio with Oscar Enberg
émergent magazine, interview by Ted Targett and Anna Eaves, 2024

The Radar: Oscar Enberg, Katie Shannon and Ki Yoong
Plaster Magazine, 2024