Christel Dillbohner

Christel Dillbohner, born in Cologne (Köln), Germany, studied painting at the Kölner Werkschule (Cologne Academy of Arts and Crafts). Dillbohner investigates events and concepts through uncommon viewpoints and tools, then transforms ideas and materials into “visual catalysts.” These are the basis for her creative process and a means of a nonverbal communication. She translates her ideas using a multitude of techniques: painting, printmaking and drawing; analog and digital photography; and assemblages of found objects with materials made of clay, paper and wax. She presents her visual studies in both intimate and large-scale site-specific installations, and with collaborative projects involving photography, writing and music. She has exhibited widely in the U.S., Germany and Japan. Her work is held in collections such as the Achenbach Foundation of Graphic Arts (San Francisco), Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento), Monterey Museum of Art, The Contemporary Museum (Honolulu); and Nagoya Women’s College (Nagoya, Japan). Since 1989 Dillbohner has been an associate of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) in Los Angeles, where she worked on the Aids Bottle Project and the AIDS Chronicles and co-edited with Lise Patt the visual studies reader Searching for Sebald (ICI Press, 2007). She lives and works in Berkeley, California.

Member:

• LIGHTFAST

Projects:

• A Celebration of Earth Day 2023