Born in Stuttgart in 1973, lives in Berlin. Since 1994, his fundamental fusion of European Expressionism and American ready-made pop culture, the conceptual repetition and seeming seriality of his iconic characters as well as his insistence on bare human dignity have been testament to his courageous and continuous enquiry into societal contradictions and social non-conformity.

Selected institutional solo exhibitions include, among others: Gesellschaft für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg, Museo Novecento, Florence in 2024; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, in 2023; Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen, in 2022; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, and Museum of the Light, Hokuto, in 2020; IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen, in 2018; Kunstverein Reutlingen in 2015; Halle für Kunst, Graz in 2014; Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover in 2011; Kunsthalle Nuremberg in 2009.

Selected public collections include, among others: Carré d’Art, Nîmes; Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Galerie moderního umění, Hradci Králové; Hamburger Bahnhof / Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Hölderlinturm, Tübingen; IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen; LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; MARe Museum, Bucharest; MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Musée d’art moderne de Paris; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Museo Novecento, Florence; Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Rubell Museum, Miami; Space K, Seoul; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; University of Chicago; Yuz Museum, Shanghai.

Portrait by Wook Kim