Carsten Höller uses his training as a scientist in his work as an artist, concentrating particularly on the nature of human relationships. Born in Brussels in 1961 to German parents, he now lives and works between Stockholm, Sweden and Biriwa, Ghana. His major installations include Test Site for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall (2006); Aventura Slide Tower at Aventura Mall, Miami (2017), and The Double Club in London (2008/09), which took the form of a bar, restaurant and nightclub designed to create a dialogue between Congolese and Western culture. For his exhibition Decision at the Hayward Gallery (2015), he turned the whole building into an experimental parcours with two entrances and four exits, two of them slides.
Höller’s works have been shown internationally over the last two decades, including solo exhibitions at Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000); Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille (2004); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2008); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2010); Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2010); New Museum, New York (2011); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2014); Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2016); Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2017); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2019) and MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2021). In 2022, he opened Brutalisten, a brutalist restaurant with a minimal amount of ingredients per dish, in Stockholm.
Carsten Höller
PANGOLIN, 2022
Skin colour-tinted soft polyurethane, cow horns, and blue glass eyes
22 × 48 × 52 cm / 8 1/2 × 18 1/1 × 20 1/2 inches
Carsten Höller
THE DOUBLE MUSHROOM VITRINE (TENFOLD), 2020
Cast polyurethane mushroom replicas in various sizes, acrylic paint, glass discs, metal pins, vitrine glass, powder-coated metal framework
146.5 × 25.9 × 98.4 cm / 57 2/3 × 10 1/6 × 38 2/3 inches
Carsten Höller
DOUBLE MUSHROOM VITRINE (TWICE), 2019
Cast polyurethane mushroom replicas in various sizes, acrylic paint, glass discs, metal pins, vitrine glass, powder-coated metal framework
31 × 45.5 × 26 cm / 12 × 18 × 10 inches
Carsten Höller
DIVISIONS SQUARE (TURQUOISE BLUE SURFACE), 2018
Caravaggio linen canvas, Flashe Vinyl paint
90 × 90 cm / 35 1/2 × 35 1/2 inches
Carsten Höller
BABY GIRAFFE, 2018
Colored polyurethane, glass eyes
38 × 53 × 75 cm / 15 × 21 × 29 1/2 inches
Carsten Höller
GIANT TRIPLE MUSHROOM, 2018
Polyester mushroom replicas, polyester paint, synthetic resin, acrylic paint, wire, putty, polyurethane, rigid foam, stainless steel
200 × 180 × 189 cm / 79 × 70 5/6 × 74 1/3 inches
Carsten Höller
DOT PAINTING (TANGO), 2018
Caravaggio linen canvas, FlashVinyl paint
90 × 90 cm / 35 1 /2 × 35 1/2 inches
Carsten Höller
DIVISIONS CIRCLE (ORANGE SURFACE), 2018
Linen canvas, Flashe Vinyl paint
Ø 90 cm / Ø 35 1/2 inches
Carsten Höller
DIVISIONS (RIVER TROUT AND SURFACE), 2017
Acrylic glass, paint, stainless steel, screws, fish taxidermy by Matthais Fahrni
44.5 × 103.5 × 23.6 cm / 17 1/2 × 40 3/4 × 9 1/3
Carsten Höller
FOUR BIRDS, 2015
Photogravure on Somerset 300 gr
60 × 72 × 3 cm / 23 5/8 × 28 × 1 inches
Con cornice / Framed
Carsten Höller
FOUR BIRDS, 2015
Photogravure on Somerset 300 gr
60 × 72 × 3 cm / 23 5/8 × 28 × 1 inches
Con cornice / Framed
Carsten Höller
OCTOPUS, 2014
Purple-coloured polyurethane, brown glass eyes
40 × 171 × 120 cm / 15 3/4 × 67 × 47 1/4 inches
Carsten Höller
KANARIENWAAGE (CANARY SCALE), 2010
Metal, wood, sand, plastic, water, 12 male canaries timbrado español
350 × 900 × 250 cm / 137 5/6 × 354 1/3 × 98 1/3 inches
Carsten Höller
MÄUSEPLATZ (MICE SQUARE), 2010
Two laboratory mice (one male and one female), Corian, pressed wood, wood shavings
112.9 × 112.5 × 120 cm / 44 1/2 × 44 1/3 × 47 1/4 inches
Carsten Höller
REINDEER, 2008
Silicon, deer hoof, blue glass eyes
10 × 56 × 28 cm / 4 × 22 × 11 inches
Carsten Höller
LIGNANO EXTREMA RANGER, 2007
C-print mounted on aluminium
117.5 × 149 cm / 46 1/4 × 58 2/3 inches
Carsten Höller
AMANITA (DETAIL), 2004
Photographic print (Part of 12)
Ognuno 54.5 × 53 cm / Each 21 29/64 × 20 5/6 inches
con cornice
Carsten Höller
AQUARIUM, 1996
PVC glass, polyethylene, filter system, pump, water, stones, sand, fish - Leuciscus idus
166 × 240 × 240 cm / 65 1/3 × 94 1/2 × 94 1/2 inches
