Maria von Kohler

Maria von Köhler focuses on mechanisms of hero worship, propaganda and their ongoing relationships with political, religious and or cultural iconography.  Her current work takes cues from a collage of culturally laden trinkets, ranging from Baroque bronzes, to Bobs Big Boy, to jolly-looking racist paraphernalia from the Deep South. The span of influences is wide but linked by a sense of retrospective unease according to contemporary tastes.

In works such as Clarice (2006) the form is dictated by a drawing of Clarice Starling seen briefly in Hannibal Lectors cell during The Silence of the Lambs, while Mr. Reynolds (2005) recreates the infamous clay portrait of Lionel Ritchie produced by the "blind" art student in the 1984 video for Hello. Both works, acing as depictions of the cultural artefact rather than the person they represent, come complete with their idiosyncratic deficiencies and flaws.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 Maybe a Herm..., IMT, London

2007 The Mother of all Babies, SEVENTEEN, London

2006 Seeline Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2003 Es kann nicht gut sein, wenn es umsonst ist, Galerie Wolf Lieser, Berlin

2002 Made in Taiwan, The Kiosk Project, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007 Timeline, Seeline Gallery, Santa Monica

2007 MOCA Fresh Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

2007 When we Build, Let Us Think That We Build Forever, The Zabludowicz Collection at BALTIC

2006 The End of Civilization, Paradise Row, London

2006 Right On/Write Off, Chapman Fine Arts, London

2005 Larry's Cocktails, Gagosian Gallery, London

2004 Selected Sculpture, Max Wigram Gallery, London

2004 Trackers, Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, Sir John Soane Museum, London

2003 A Tiny New Nation, Spital Square, London

2003 Harewood House, Leeds, West Yorkshire

2003 England Our England, Artjunky @ 1 Carnaby St, London

2002 Graduate 2003, The Kiosk Project, London

2002 Premiums 2002, Sackler Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, London

2000 London Biennale, Carpenters Road Studios, London

EDUCATION

2003 Royal Academy Schools

1999 University of East London

1994 California State University, Los Angeles