Jürg Lehni works collaboratively across disciplines, dealing with the nuances of technology, tools and the human condition. His works often take the form of platforms and scenarios for production, such as the drawing machines Hektor, Rita and Viktor, as well as software-based structures and frameworks, including Paper.js, Scriptographer and the now defunct Vectorama.org.
Lehni has shown work internationally in group and solo shows at the MoMA New York, Walker Art Center, Centre Pompidou, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Museum London, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, etc. His work has been acquired by collections of institutions such as the SFMOMA (Viktor), as well as the HeK in Basel (Four Transitions & Flood Fill) and the Kunsthaus Zürich (Four Transitions).
After years of working and teaching abroad, Lehni now runs his own studio practice in Zürich. He previously was an Associate Professor of Interaction Design at the Parsons School of Art, Media, & Technology in New York in 2016 ~ 2017, the Arts Council Visiting Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts in 2012 ~ 2013, running his own studio in London in 2008 ~ 2011, and on a research residency at Sony SET Studio in Tokyo in 2006.
Solo Exhibitions
2022
Wild Card 15: Empty Words Takes Inventory, Museum Strauhof, Zürich
2012
Moving Picture Show, 23rd International Poster and Graphic Design Festival, Chaumont, France
2009
Empty Words, Swiss Institute, New York (with Alex Rich)
Things in the Air, Bell Park, Kriens, Switzerland (with Alex Rich &
Raphael Hefti)
Things to Say, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland (with Alex Rich)
2008
A Recent History Of Writing And Drawing, ICA, London (with Alex Rich)
2007
Hektor Meets Dexter Sinister, Swiss Institute, New York (with David Reinfurt)
2006
Auto Portrait, By Trico, Fukuoka, Japan (with Alex Rich)
Landscape / Portrait, Information Gallery, Tokyo (with Alex Rich)
2005
Rita + Hektor, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm
Lectures and Conferences
2013
Computation Lecture Series, MIT Architecture, Cambridge
WWW Drawing Symposium, The Drawing Center, New York
Common Grounds, Common Practices: Cory Arcangel & Jürg Lehni, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Video)
Design Media Arts Lecture Series, UCLA, Los Angeles
Poetic Machines, Robotic Gestures and Scenarios of Production, Media Arts and Technology Graduate Program, UCSB, Santa Barbara
Typo SF, San Francisco
2012
Hammer Lectures, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Liminal Objects, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge
Resonate 2012, Belgrade, Serbia
Graphisme en france, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Visiting Designers Programme, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
Kolla! 2012, Stockholm, Sweden
International Poster and Graphic Design Festival, Chaumont, France
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
TIME – From Dürer to Bonvicini, Kunsthaus Zürich
Fanfare Fanfare, Broken Channels, Amsterdam
Blank. Raw. Illegible… Artists’ Books as Statements (1960–2022), Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, Germany
2022
Planet Digital, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich,
OK Computer – Sprachen der Ordnung, Sitterwerk, St. Gallen
2021
House of Switzerland, Stuttgart
2020
Nature of Robotics, EPFL ArtLab, Lausanne
Scrivere Disegnando, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève
2019
Weltformat Graphic Design Festival, Lucerne
2018
Digitaltag, ZHdK, Zürich
2017
Computational Design, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Architecture
2016
Typeface to Interface, SFMOMA, San Francisco
2015
Short Cuts, Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
2014
All Possible Futures, SOMArts, San Francisco
Hektor Circles, SFMOMA On the Go, FOG Fair at Fort Mason, San Francisco
2012
Graphic Design: Now in Production, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Utrecht Manifest, Biennial for Social Design, Utrecht
2011
Graphic Design: Now in Production, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The Solutions: International Design Biennale, Chengdu, China
2010
Serpentine Map Marathon, Royal Geographical Society, London
Design for Life, Rochelle School, London
Beginnings, Middles & Ends, Galerie Christine König, Vienna
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air / Not Nothing, Mechelen, Belgium
2008
Les Urbaines, Lausanne, Switzerland
Spectrarium, Pavillon Suisse, Paris
Design And The Elastic Mind, MoMA, New York
2007
Making Do 2, Green Gallery, Yale University School of Art, New Haven
Forms of Inquiry, Architecture Association, London
Man-[in the]-Machine, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany
Generator.x, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
You Are Here, Design Museum, London
2004
Detox, Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
When Robots Draw, Kunstmuseum, Solothurn, Switzerland
2003
Tourette’s II, Gallery W139, Amsterdam
Lee 3 Tau Ceti Central Armory Show, Villa Arson, Nice
Signes des Écoles d’art, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Robotergestützter Graffitikurs, Lektion 1 - 4, Galerie Wieland, Berlin
Mursolaici, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris
2002
Claude Monet bis zum digitalen Impressionismus; Fondation Beyeler, Basel
Transmediale 02, Berlin
2001
Stealing Eyeballs, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna
Selected Publications
2022
Graphic Design in the Post-Digital Age: A Survey of Practices Fueled by Creative Coding, Onomatopee Projects
2020
WWW Drawing, Architectural Drawing: From Pencil to Pixel, Actar Publishers
2019
Le Temps, Jürg Lehni, artisan numérique
2015
Holo 2 – Emerging trajectories in art, science, and technology, Jürg Lehni
2013
Spheres Magazine – Rafaël Rozendaal, Compression by Abstraction: A Conversation About Vectors
2011
Grafik #188, Jürg Lehni
Eye Magazine 81, Teaching In The Spaces Between Code And Design
2010
Idea magazine 340, A Recent History of Writing and Drawing
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books – The Future Issue, Federal Ministry of Culture Bern
2009
Typeface as Programme, ECAL and JRP|Ringier
Idea magazine 329, A Recent History of Writing and Drawing
Eye Magazine 69 Chalking And Talking
Perspecta 40 – Monster, The Yale Architectural Journal
2007
Frieze Magazine, November / December, Hektor Meets Dexter Sinister
2006
RES Magazine, July / August
Eye Magazine 60 Tools To Make Or Break
2005
Wired Magazine, December
2004
I.D. Magazine, September / October
Awards
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, 2011
Swiss Federal Design Awards, 2006
Sitemapping.ch Project Grant, 2005
Swiss Federal Design Awards, 2003
New Talent Competition at Milia, 2001
Swiss Federal Design Awards, 2001
Work grant of the City and Canton of Lucerne, 2000
Colophon
Website design and programming: Jürg Lehni
Design advice and proofreading: Mindy Seu
Menu typeface: Superstudio by Jonathan Hares
Text typeface: Executive by Gavillet & Rust