Cosima von Bonin

Cosima von Bonin (born 1962) is a German contemporary artist whose practice includes sculptures, textiles, sound, film, and performances. Von Bonin draws inspiration from the intellectual, artistic, and musical culture of her neighborhood in Cologne, Germany, where she lives and works with her husband, Michael Krebber. She is known for being a political artist as well as by her humor, aquatic caricatures, and use of pop-culture characters, such as Daffy Duck.

Early life
Cosima von Bonin was born in Mombasa, Kenya and raised in Austria. Von Bonin graduated from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (University of Fine Arts in Hamburg), where she studied art under the tutelage of Martin Kippenberger and assistant Michael Krebber. Von Bonin said that she met many important figures while in college, figures such as Friedrich Petzel, Jutta Koether, and Diedrich Diederischsen.

When von Bonin was still a student, her first memorable work was in a collaboration with Josef Strau, in which von Bonin exhibited herself in a window display at a Hamburg showroom in 1990.

Artist career
One focus of von Bonin's artistic works is the relationship between works of art and the world of fashion, music and architecture. She often focuses on collective artistic production frequently including collaboration with other artists, artists such as Dirk von Lowtzow, Michael Krebber, Mark von Schlegell, Kai Althoff, and many others. Von Bonin has a large array of works and a vast amount of materials that she uses within her extensive volume of artworks. She has utilized small objects, plush toys, cardboard, sound equipment, short films, photo-based pieces, and even cardboard replicas of previous pieces. Von Bonin's use of textiles has received praise regarding her tapestry works. Von Bonin has worked in different venues as well, such as parties, DJ sets, music performances and audio and video exhibitions.

Von Bonin personally does not include the meanings of her works, art critics Jan Avgikos and Holly Myers, feel that understanding von Bonin’s works can be difficult or frustrating for this reason. There are a few articles where von Bonin talks about why she purposely does not convey the insight of her pieces, Thomas Gebremedhin from The Wall Street Journal and Eleanor Heartney with The Brooklyn Rail, have brief discussions with her over this topic.

Throughout her career, von Bonin has been described as bringing play and fun into her work. Von Bonin is known to use humor in her works and works mainly in collaborations, it has been pointed out by art critics like Nuit Banai and Jan Avgikos, that the employment of humor may be utilized to make her seem elusive. She has been called a political artist as well, especially when describing her work in her sixth solo exhibition, "'What if it Barks?'".

Her work has been compared to Sigmar Polke, Martin Kippenberger, and Rosemarie Trockel, some of the artists that von Bonin claimed influenced her early career are André Cadere, Marcel Broodthaers, Cady Noland, and Mike Kelley.

Select solo exhibitions

 * Cosima von Bonin: The Cousins, Braunschweig Art Association, Kunstverein Braunschweig (Feb 5 - Mar 26, 2000)
 * Cosima von Bonin: Roger and Out, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Sept 16, 2007- Jan 7, 2008)
 * Cosima von Bonin: The Fatigue Empire, Kunsthaus Bregenz (July 17 - Oct 3, 2010)
 * Cosima von Bonin: The Lazy Susan, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands (Oct 10, 2010 - Jan 9, 2011); Arnolfini, Bristol (Feb 19 - Apr 25, 2011); Mamco, Geneva (June 8 - Sept 18, 2011); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Nov 5, 2011 - May 13, 2012)
 * Cosima von Bonin: Character Appropriation, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (May 6 - Aug 1, 2011)
 * Hippies Use the Side Door The Year 2014 Has Lost the Plot, Mumok, Vienna (Oct 4, 2014 - Jan 18, 2015)
 * This was also performative piece, she had people enter only from the side doors of the Mumok.
 * Boy at Work, Lumiar Cité, Lisbon (Apr 15 - July 4, 2023)
 * Cosima von Bonin: Shit and Chanel, House of Gaga, Mexico City (May 18 - Aug 3, 2019)
 * Von Bonin's first solo exhibition in Mexico.
 * The exhibition contained a pink steel-wired cement mixer that held a drove of pink pig stuffed animals, four wooden canvases of Daffy Duck being enclosed and squashed by a black entity, an orange steel-wire cement mixer with dark blue lobster claws dangling and handcuffed to the barrel, and more.
 * Von Bonin has been represented by the House of Gaga in Mexico City since 2019.
 * Cosima von Bonin: Who's Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea, Glasgow International, Glasgow, Scotland (Apr 7 - Aug 7, 2016); SculptureCenter, Queens, New York (Sept 19, 2016 - Jan 2, 2017); Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario (Mar 26 - May 28, 2017)
 * Von Bonin's first solo museum exhibition in New York and Canada.
 * The works within the exhibition consisted of textiles, music, sculpture, performance, video, and painting. One of the sculptures in this exhibition is a soft sculpture called "Total Produce (Morality)" (2010), it is a large octopus with varying and colorful patterns sat upon a just as colorful raised platform that has lights underneath. Von Bonin had included past artworks from the 2000s displayed in this exhibition.
 * Cosima von Bonin: 'What If It Barks?', Petzel Gallery, New York, New York (Feb 23 - Apr 21, 2018)
 * Cosima von Bonin's first full-scale installation, and her eighth show with the gallery. The theme is almost completely aquatic except for a few works, such as a miniature hippopotamus inside of a cylindrical birdhouse titled HIPPO'S HOUSE (PROPERTY OF ARNOLD MOSSELMAN, THE HAGUE).
 * The exhibition contains oversized cat tins that bellowed smoke, this can is called AUTHORITY PURÉE, there are wooden barrels with polyester shark heads poking out from the top and a plush plaid missile in its mouth, fish of varying sizes sporting clothes and ukuleles, and more.
 * In the exhibition, Cosima von Bonin presented a performative writing called a performative utterance. In this section of the article, Authority Purée talks with von Bonin about her exhibition, "What if it Barks?".

Select group exhibitions

 * Documenta 12 (June 16 - Sept 23, 2007)
 * Home Sweet Home, Deichtorhallen (1997)
 * First Graz Fan Fest (1995)
 * Glockengeschrei nach Deutz - das Beste aller Seiten (The Bell Screams Towards Deutz - the Best of all Sides) (1996)

Public collections
Cosima von Bonin's art can be found in a number of public collections, including:


 * Museum of Modern Art
 * Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles