Peter Vahlefeld

Peter Vahlefeld – Painting Between Image and Reality

An art historian once described Peter Vahlefeld’s pictures as "landscapes" because there is usually a horizon line, a top and bottom. They could be assigned to the concept of landscape in an almost narrative way, namely that of the "media landscape" from which the motifs originate.

Vahlefeld is interested in the way images influence how we see and understand the world. He takes familiar media images and transforms them through painting. Printed images are cut, covered, erased or partially concealed beneath layers of oil paint. In this process, an image can lose its original meaning and become something new. What we thought we recognized is still present, but it has been altered and made uncertain.

This tension between recognition and uncertainty is central to Vahlefeld’s work. His paintings question the distinction between reality and the images through which reality is presented to us. In a world increasingly shaped by photography, advertising and digital media, images can sometimes appear more immediate and more convincing than reality itself. Vahlefeld explores this phenomenon through the very act of painting.

His canvases bring together contrasting materials and visual ex...

1988 – Grant, Parsons School of Design, Paris
1990 – Honor-Degree, Parsons School of Design, New York
Awards:
1991 – American Illustration 10th Annual Award, New York
2003 – Photoshopaward, Berlin
2014 – ZDF Kultur: Kopf der Woche, ZDF television feature, Studio Berlin

2026
Fragmented Realities, Von Fraunberg Art Gallery, Düsseldorf
Der Spiegel des Abwesenden, Kunsthaus Frölich, Stuttgart
Kunst im Raum, Suzy_Loop, Lake Chiemsee, near Munich
2025
Minda Dowling, Hotel Art Consultants, London
Overpaintings, Galerie Michael Heufelder, Munich, Germany
25 Jahre Kunsthaus Frölich, Stuttgart, Germany (Group Show)
Poliform Interior Design, Hamburg Stadthöfe, Germany
2024
New and Abstract Showroom, Berlin
Uncorporate Image at the Invitation of the Allianz Art Collection, Munich
Collaboration with Fritz Hansen Showroom, Munich, Germany
Poliform Interior Design, Hamburg Stadthöfe, Germany
2023
Sali e Tabacchi, Galerie Michael Heufelder, Munich, Germany
Collaboration with Fritz Hansen Showroom, Munich, Germany
Poliform Interior Design, Hamburg Stadthöfe, Germany
2022
Collaboration with White & Case LLP, Frankfurt (Acquisition)
2021
»Language is a virus from Wuhan« (Groupshow), Salon Privé, Berlin, Germany
»Ich weiß nicht was ein Ort ist, ich kenne nur seinen Preis« Elizabeth Cooper, Berlin, Germany
»The White & Case Collection« until 2022, White & Case LLP, Frankfurt, Germany
»Ästhetik der Inszenierung« until April 2022, LF Consult, Stuttgart, Germany
2020
»Ich weiß nicht was ein Ort ist, ich ke...