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Cosima von Bonin, DÄMONENRÄUMDIENST, 2023

Cosima von Bonin

DÄMONENRÄUMDIENST, 2023

Wool, cotton, fleece, and silkscreen

57 1/2 x 80 inches
146 x 203 cm

(CVB 23/023)

“It is impossible not to be entranced with Cosima von Bonin’s playful works. Her huge, floppy stuffed animals, outsized rockets, and large-scale textile ‘paintings’ exude a certain seductiveness and absurdity though one shot through with sardonic wit."

Meredith Malone, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum 

Cosima von Bonin -  - Viewing Room - Petzel Gallery

Cosima von Bonin was born in 1962 in Mombasa, Kenya. She came of age in Cologne during the 1980s where she was part of the booming art scene; she still lives and works in the city. Most well-known for her sculptures and installations created from fabric and readymades, she often uses comedy and pop culture to question social constructions and relations.

In 2024, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Mudam Luxembourg opened majors exhibition of her work. In 2022, her installation on the façade of the Giardini’s Central Pavilion welcomed visitors to the Cecilia Alemani-organized The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale. She has also participated in Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017), Glasgow International (2016), and Documenta (2007 & 1982). One-person exhibitions have taken place at CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany; Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Kunstverein in Hamburg; Magasin III Jaffa, Tel Aviv; mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York, among others.

In 2016, Thomas Borgmann donated over a dozen major works by von Bonin including panels, sculptures, a room-sized installation as part of his gift to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam – the second largest in the institution’s history. Her work is also a part of the Boros Collection, Berlin; Bundeskunstsammlung, Germany; Dallas Museum of Art; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view, Cosima von Bonin, WHAT IF IT BARKS?, Petzel, 2018

Installation view of von Bonin's show at MUMOK featuring three large hanging stuffed birds, each wearing colorful scarves. Two patch-work cloth "paintings" hang in the background.

Hippies Use the Side Door, MUMOK, 2014

Installation view

Installation view from documenta 12 featuring two of von Bonin's rorschach test fabric paintings. One is pink and purple with the white rorschach blob appliquéd on, and the second is light and dark blue with the white rorscah test appliquéd on. The paintings are hanging from the ceiling, below them are small white bleachers and in the background are white cubes on platforms and a large gray stuffec bulldog on a white platform.

documenta 12, Kassel, Germany, 2007

Installation view

Installation view from the Stedelik Museum of three stuffed dogs. One is a gray Saint Bernard with a brimmed fabric hat on a white platform. Behind it is a stuffed gray bulldog on a platform and off to the side is a yellow stuffed flappy-eared dog. Hanging on the wall in the background is a fabric painting.

JUMP INTO THE FUTURE: ART FROM THE 90'S AND 2000'S, Stedelijk Museum, 2018

Installation view

Installation view from Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2010. Eight textile paintings hang on two perpendicular walls. All are different colors and feature white gloved hands embroidered on them.

Cosima von Bonin- THE FATIGUE EMPIRE, Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2010

Installation view

Installation shot from CvB SIngles Uptown Remix at Petzel's Uptown location. A multicolored octopus sculpture is in the center of the room. on the left-hand wall is the purple and pink rorschach text painting. on the back wall is a textile painting with an animal in a red hat embroidered on it. the street post with a cigarette is standing in the right hand corner.

CvB Singles Uptown Remix, Petzel Gallery, 2015

Installation view

Installation shot from CvB SIngles Uptown Remix at Petzel's Uptown location. A multicolored octopus sculpture is in the center of the room. on the back wall are two textile paintings and on the right hand wall is the pink and purple rorschach test painting.

CvB Singles Uptown Remix, Petzel Gallery, 2015

Installation view

Installation view of WHAT IF IT BARKS? at Petzel in 2018. The image features eight plastic fish and two fabric killer whales in a large circle with a giant aluminum cat food can hanging from the ceiling.

WHAT IF IT BARKS? featuring AUTHORITY PURÉE, Petzel Gallery, 2018

Installation view

Installation image of a killer whale soft sculptures with three plastic mackrel sculptures in the background. Each mackrel is robed in gingham fabrics, one has a ukulele and another has a white electric guitar.

WHAT IF IT BARKS? featuring AUTHORITY PURÉE, Petzel Gallery, 2018

Installation view