Brad Kahlhamer

5 Plain Questions

Brad Kahlhamer’s (b. 1956 Tucson, AZ) art lives at the crossroads of real and imaginary worlds. Born to Native parents and adopted by a German-American family, he was raised in Arizona and Wisconsin and spent his early adulthood as a musician living on the road before settling in New York City. Shaped by this nomadic history, Kahlhamer’s work explores the particularities of the American landscape: the desert ecology of the Southwest, the parks and waterways of the upper Midwest, and the gritty streets of the urban Northeast—often fusing references to multiple regions within a single work of art. Similarly, Kahlhamer draws from a broad array of artistic sources, from Native American aesthetics and Abstract Expressionism, to graffiti and popular culture. Even his references to Native culture cut across tribal traditions, as Kahlhamer views himself and his art as “tribally ambiguous.” Kahlhamer’s art explores notions of cultural hybridity and the experience of navigating multiple communities, as well as the representation and appropriation of Native culture.

Kahlhamer lives and works in New York City and Mesa, Arizona. His work has been included in national and international group exhibitions, at institutions including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aspen Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). His work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at the Joslyn Museum, Omaha; Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; and Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden.

Swap Meet at Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum

https://smoca.org/exhibition/brad-kahlhamer-swap-meet/

Brad Kahlhamer: 11:59 to Tuscon at the Tuscan Museum of Art

https://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/exhibition/brad-kahlhamer-1159-to-tucson/

Brad Kahlhamer: Fort Gotham USA at Garth Greenan Gallery

https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/brad-kahlhamer

Brad Kahlhamer: A Nation of One at Plains Art Museum (2019)

https://plainsart.org/exhibitions/brad-kahlhamer/