b. 1942, based in Los Angeles, US

The subversive work of Christof Kohlhöfer is closely connected to German Pop Art and the so called “capitalist realism”. The artist uses stencil techniques and spray cans to transfer the aesthetics of urban art into galleries and museums, opening up a critical discourse on our commercial society. The result is a mixture of complex visual worlds that wander between banality and opulence, subculture and acknowledged art. Through metaphorical and linguistic interventions Kohlhöfer adresses social structures to the observer. His new visual dimensions involve the viewer’s individual experience and perception of reality. The artist breaks down the projections of his photographic originals transposing them into stencil. These depict topics such as social inequality and frustration, underground art and varied aspects of life. Kohlhöfer studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Karl Otto Goetz and Joseph Beuys, graduating in 1971.