Christof Kohlhöfer
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.

BABY WITH A GUN, 1984
Acrylic on silkscreen, fabric
218 x 137 cm

INDIANERDARSTELLUNG, 1968
Acrylics on screenprint
176 x 114 cm

SMOKING ODALISQUE, 1993
Mixed media on ca. 500 matchboxes with holographic images
156 x 252 cm

PIGS,1993
Mixed media on canvas
135 x 120 cm

PERSONENGRUPPE AN FEUERSTELLE, 1982
Acrylics on canvas
174 x 203 cm