Peter Vahlefeld

Paint-smeared studio floors are perhaps the most immediate associations one has with his pictures. Peter Vahlefeld’s painting stands in contrast to the many sleek surfaces of mass production defined by digital perfection. The physicality, the application of material, the celebration of color, the substance, and the gestures of his painting constitute the artist’s response to a formalized, media-driven world, reflecting what is absent from our realm of consumer goods: the traces of human existence and physicality. The more abstract our work becomes, and the more time we spend in front of a screen, the greater the longing for sensuality—for oil paint and pigments. There is no flawless application of color here, as one finds on a digital surface; the physical element—materiality—is what matters. Striving for depth and intensity by employing the sculptural qualities of oil paint that pulls us in, he uses multiple layers of paint, prints, and fabrics embracing the beauty of textures. Lifting a picture out of its usual two dimensions and into a third—making it tangible, effectively "building" it—is perhaps the best way to describe this complex and time-consuming process. We need these images to feel our own presence. If we eliminate too ...

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...