Christoph Kiefhaber was born in 1941 in Neumarkt am Wallersee in Austria. At the age of only 13, he started studying art at the International Summer Academy directed by Oskar Kokoschka.Later, he studied at Dublin University before enrolling at the school of fine arts in Vienna. Owing to his middle-class education, he became a successful accountant and worked for a big company, but he never interrupted his artistic activities and continued to attend the Vienna School of Fine Arts under Fritz Martinz.
His first works reveal his youthful passion for archaeology and his fascination with puppets and dolls, which he playfully deconstructs in his artwork.His later works, instead, show the influence of Picasso and Mirò and the fantastic, dream-like world they represent in their works. Kiefhaber transforms this input into a language of his own, made of faces and symbols, and vivid, saturated colors. Since 1984, the year of his first one-man show, he has abandoned the world of business to dedicate himself entirely to art. Kiefhaber has no preferred medium of expression: he moves from painting to drawing, from engraving to sculpture, and from ceramics to stained glass - his latest, thrilling discovery.
