Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Kohnke.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born and raised in Germany, I have always made art, I was always drawing or painting when I was a kid. I lived in Belgium and Switzerland before coming to the US in 1994. I attended the Art Center, Pasadena, CA and started freelancing as a graphic designer and artist in Los Angeles after graduation.
My work and interests have always been multifaceted. Over the next 15 years, I would work in advertising and graphic design, for myself and in agencies big and small. My education and work experience afforded me a wide range of skills, from photography to animation, from drawing to music to printmaking. I employ many of these skills in my own work today.
My family and I moved to San Diego from Los Angeles about 4 years ago. My focus these days is mainly on my fine art practice, as well as designing exhibition catalogs, art books and the occasional logo.
Please tell us about your art.
My work is very multifaceted. I work in a wide range of media including photography, printmaking, drawing/mixed media and video. I tend to work on multiple projects at once. They seem to inform each other and sometimes come together in a bigger context.
There are a lot of projects sitting in my studio that are completed to a certain point but are still waiting for another domino to fall. Sometimes that happens quickly sometimes it takes a year or two.
I enjoy playing with contrasts, combining different ideas or materials, or seemingly contrasting formal subjects… I like to explore a new way to make things. Try things I have never done. I’d rather do a lot of things well than be perfect at one thing only.
It is hard to define why I make work, it makes me happy to create, to make something that is from me but outside of myself as well. It helps me understand my place in the world, or at least makes me ponder it. I am inspired by language, observing pop culture, pretending to be an onlooker, my wife’s study of symbolism, figuring out why things are the way they are, reducing complicated thoughts into simple gestures. A recent work looks at copies and originals, symbols with and without meaning and their relation.
I hope people will be inspired to think, consider the bigger picture, recognize themselves in some of the thoughts that have gone into the work. I am not overly concerned with viewers taking away one very specific message from my work, as long as it provokes a thought and intrigue…
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think as an artist you can’t help but be influenced by what is going on in the world. In many ways, I use my work to process it. As an immigrant, I enjoy experiencing and observing differences in culture. I feel this perspective has shaped my view and influenced my work.
While I am not a political artist or activist, it is important to me to stand up for what I believe is right and to support causes that are important to me. My art was never purely politically motivated, so I am not directly or solely addressing politics in it now.
I do believe that artists are forward thinkers, and usually more openminded and experimental and less rigid in their assessments. I think that has always been this way. So as much as artists reflect society itself, they also give a glimpse, a look into the future of our society.
I think of art a bit like the rowdy little brother of the free press. In times where justice and freedom are being threatened, where human decency and generosity seem to disappear a bit every day, art should be there to remind us that we are all people. That we are all connected and that we are all the same.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Check on my website for announcements or contact me to be added to the mailing list.
Two shows in San Diego just came down, but there is always something on the horizon.
Images of my work can be found on my website. A lot of the work is for sale, just inquire for pricing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alexanderkohnke.com
- Email: werkstatt@alexanderkohnke.com
- Instagram: @Alexander_Kohnke
- Other: design: alexkohnke.com and shiffmankohnke.com interview: https://theartistodyssey.com/library/
Image Credit:
Philipp Scholz Rittermann
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