Untitled, synthetic polymer paint, oil, enamel and poster tempera on fabric on enamel painted wood stretcher frame

Kai Althoff is a German artist working in painting, sculpture, and mixed media. The artist’s works embrace a wildly colourful and sometimes almost childlike aesthetic, blending gestural mark-making with subtly detailed features and figures. 

Untitled, oil, lacquer, tempera and poster on cloth

I really like Althoff’s current body of paintings. These works do a beautiful job of capitalizing on the aesthetics of both figurative and abstract paintings, blending bright colours and large planes of textural colour with half-composed figures, sometimes rendered in colour, sometimes in a hazy grey that seems to float in and out of existence on the canvas surface. 

The artist’s sculptural installations take on a more playful appearance, with the artist’s choice of bright colours and sculptural stand-ins for real objects hearkening to handmade toys and retro playgrounds. Visually, the works are whimsical, and yet the viewer can’t seem to escape the idea of something deeper -- and perhaps darker -- going on under the surface.

Untitled (Installation view at Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC)