Biography

Within the Mülheimer Freiheit group, Gerard Kever is praised as the “wildest of the wild”. There is always something dark in his work; he fundamentally rejects content in the traditional sense. Kever’s search for intellectual friction led him to the New York film scene after training as an art glazier in 1971 and studying fine art. In the class of the Cologne filmmaker Robert van Ackeren (*1946) at the Cooper Union in New York, Kever found inspiration for his anarchic attitude of rejection.

Kever’s work includes painting, Super-8 films, graphics and literature. As part of the group’s activities, Kever’s works can be seen in numerous exhibitions, for example in 1982 at the Museum Folkwang in Essen. In 2003/2004, his works were shown in the collective exhibition “Obsessive Painting – A Review of the New Wild Ones” in Karlsruhe and in 2022 at the Center of Contemporary Art, Toruń/Poland in the retrospective “Mülheimer Freiheit – made in Cologne”.

Works

Exhibitions

News

Documents

Publications

1971 Trained as an art glassesmith at the glass school in Rheinbach near Bonn

1976 Studied fine art/film at the Cologne Werkschulen. Postgraduate studies in free graphics and new media/video at the Cooper Union in New York

1979 Member of the artist group Mülheimer Freiheit

1994 Studies at the OSHO Mystic School of Visual Arts in the USA

2019 Book publication “The decoding of the Sistine Madonna”

2021 Book publication “Inside Mülheimer Freiheit: The wild painting of the 80s”

Exhibitions (selection)

2024

Mülheimer Freiheit, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2023

Mülheimer Freiheit. Made in Cologne, Ketterer Kunst, Cologne

2022

Painting Tumult. Mülheimer Freiheit – Made in Cologne, Centre of Contemporary Art, Toruń

2003

Obsessive Malerei. Ein Rückblick auf die Neuen Wilden, ZKM / Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe

1985

Adamski. Bömmels. Dahn. Dokoupil. Kever. Naschberger, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

1984

… von hier aus, Messehallen Düsseldorf

Sammlung Metzger. Zeitgenössische Malerei aus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Kunsthalle Budapest/Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere/Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

1983

Mülheimer Freiheit – Proudly Presents the Second Bombing, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Institute of Contemporary Art, London

Supermix, Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne

Expressionisten – Neue Wilde, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund

1982

Autos und Sex. Mülheimer Freiheit, Kunstverein Wolfsburg

Mülheimer Freiheit, Galerie Swart, Amsterdam

12 Künstler aus Deutschland, Kunsthalle Basel; Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

10 junge Künstler aus Deutschland, Museum Folkwang, Essen

1981

Mülheimer Freiheit. Die Seefahrt und der Tod, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven

Die heimliche Wahrheit – Mülheimer Freiheit, Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau

Der grüne Hühnerficker ist endlich traurig, Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne

Bildwechsel. Neue Malerei aus Deutschland, Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Mülheimer Freiheit. Nieuwe Duitse Kunst, Groninger Museum, Groningen

1980

Mülheimer Freiheit & Interessante Bilder aus Deutschland, Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne

Finger für Deutschland, Atelier von Jörg Immendorff, Düsseldorf

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