Brad Kahlhamer works in a range of media including sculpture, drawing, painting, performance, and music to explore what he refers to as the “third place”—a meeting point of two opposing personal histories. Born in Tucson, adopted by a German-American family and raised in Wisconsin, Kahlhamer moved to New York City in his 20s, worked as an illustrator at Topps Comics, and joined the artistic milieu of the Lower East Side. Reimagining a subjective vocabulary through a neo-expressionist lens, his work includes references to 20th century abstract German Expressionism painting and navigates his tripartite identity, creating a visual language that straddles and expands notions of authenticity and representation within the greater discourse of Native American art.
In the NAC’s first (official) artist's summer residency, Kahlhamer was in residence in June in a studio/cabin north of Park Rapids where he produced new body of work. Kahlhamer holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, and lives and works in NYC and Mesa, AZ.
