FRIEDRICH KUNATH

Kunath’s works have been exhibited at major institutions including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Aspen Art Museum, KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, and G2 Kunsthalle Leipzig.

Early Years

Kunath was born in 1974 in Chemnitz, East Germany (then Karl-Marx-Stadt), and moved to West Berlin with his mother in 1986 as part of the peace movement’s family releases. He studied at the Braunschweig University of Art, graduating in 1998, and names Walter Dahn as a formative influence, particularly for their shared interest in the intersection of art and music. In 2007, Kunath relocated to Los Angeles, a move that introduced a new palette and sense of space to his work, blending his German Romantic roots with the light and iconography of California. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and Munich.

Friedrich Kunath Artworks

Kunath’s contemporary art practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video. His works are known for their dreamlike, often psychedelic landscapes, layered with text fragments from literature, music, and film. He weaves together autobiography, pop culture, and art history, creating a visual language that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Romantic Conceptualism and Melancholy

Kunath’s early works established his signature approach: idealised landscapes and surreal tableaux marked by irony, longing, and wit. He frequently incorporates poetic phrases—sometimes carved into wet paint or overlaid onto vibrant scenes—inviting viewers into a space between sincerity and parody.

Sunset Paintings and Emotional Contradiction

In the last decade, Kunath has become especially known for his sunset paintings—slick, airbrushed canvases that juxtapose cliché with sincerity, emptiness with fullness. He describes sunsets and rainbows as ‘the saxophone solos of art’, offering a chance to transform the banal into something profound. His installations, such as All Your Fears Trapped Inside (2023), turn the artist’s inner world outward, filling gallery spaces with personal objects, paintings, and found materials in a dense, theatrical arrangement.

Pop Culture, Music, and Surreal Humour

Kunath’s imagery draws on a wide array of references: German Romanticism, the Hudson River School, cartoons, 90s song lyrics, and tennis. His works often feature recurring figures—melancholic everymen, animals, or cartoon characters—caught between hope and despair, comedy and tragedy. This ‘romantic conceptualism’ has become a hallmark of his practice, as described by critics and his galleries alike.

Awards and Accolades

• Sprengel Prize for Fine Arts, Sparkassen Foundation of Lower Saxony (2012)
• Peter Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2001)
• Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung Grant, Frankfurt (2005)

Exhibitions

Friedrich Kunath has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at important galleries and institutions. Below is a selection of important exhibitions.

Solo Exhibitions

• One Day I’ll Follow The Byrds (Tutto Pasta), Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2024)
• At This Point in My Life (I’ll Have the Calamari), G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig (2024)
• I Need Solitude, But I Also Need You, Nassima Landau, Tel Aviv (2024)
• Coming Home Was As Beautiful As Going Away, KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2023)
• There Must Be A Spanish Word For This Feeling, CAC Málaga (2023)
• I Don’t Know The Place, But I Know How To Get There, BLUM, Los Angeles (2023)
• I’ll Try to Be More Romantic, Kunstsammlung Jena, Germany (2021—22)
• Hammer Projects: Friedrich Kunath, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010)
• Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2008)

Group Exhibitions

• The World Belongs to You, Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2011)
• Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008)
• 11th Triennale für Kleinplastik, Fellbach (2010)
• Learn to Read, Tate Modern, London (2007)
• Documenta 14, Kassel (2017)
• Journeys to Nowhere: Selections from the Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2016)

Website and Instagram

Friedrich Kunath’s website can be found here and his Instagram here.

Friedrich Kunath FAQs

Ocula | 2025