2023 Catalogue Archive

Cologne-based, German painter Kenneth Bergfeld presents other-worldly, colorful portraits of real and imagined characters, many with a signature dome covering their eyes. These psychedelic avatars, from his Androgynous Angels series, are based on him, and presented with seemingly infinite modifications. Backgrounds change from illusionistic to expressive to minimal washes of neon, as seen here. The domes, which can read as helmets, coiffed hair, or mushroom caps, also provide a canvas for variation and experimentation. This repetition was inspired in part by viewing Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Bergfeld’s work has been exhibited at Koelnischer Kunstverein; the Museum Abteiberg, Moenchengladbach; the Kunstverein Duisburg; the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; the Hochschule fuer bildende Kuenste Hamburg; and the Kunstverein Leverkusen, among others.