Cosima von Bonin (born 1962 in Mombasa, lives in Cologne) began her career in the early 1990s, following in the footsteps of
Martin Kippenberger. A prolific artist, she produced oversized stuffed animals and other fantastical creatures, as well as pseudo-Minimalist sculptures using comedy, cartoons, and pop culture to question social constructions and relations. She explores the relationship of the individual to work, the capitalist production system, and leisure society. She uses knitted and woven fabrics to create objects that enable her to mock industrial means of production, which she feels infantilize the individual. By advocating a life of
dolce far niente, of carefree idleness, von Bonin is proposing a form of resistance against the consumerist regime. Her exhibitions include the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Mudam Luxembourg, both 2024; Magasin III Jaffa, Tel Aviv (2019); CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson (2018); and Sculpture Center, New York (2016). She participated in the 59th Biennale di Venezia (2022); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); Glasgow International (2016); MUMOK, Vienna (2014); Artipelag, Sweden (2013); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis (2011); Arnolfini, Bristol (2011); Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2011); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008); and Documenta, Kassel (2007 & 1982).
