Cosima von Bonin

Cosima von Bonin was born in 1962 in Mombasa, Kenya, and was raised in Austria before settling in Cologne, Germany, where she still lives and works. German-language biographical sources describe her as self-taught, while other, mostly English-language, sources describe her as a graduate of the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste Hamburg, where she is said to have studied under Martin Kippenberger with assistant Michael Krebber; she later held visiting professorships at the same school, including a 2000 to 2001 appointment. No primary academic record confirming a completed degree has been located, so the graduate claim is treated here with caution.

Von Bonin's practice spans sculpture, installation, textile work, sound, and film, often built from fabric, readymades, and outsized soft-sculpture versions of cartoon and pop-culture characters. Her 2007 installation at Documenta 12 in Kassel is widely regarded as one of the highlights of that edition. Her first major American survey, Roger and Out, opened the same year at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, followed by solo exhibitions at Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2011) and mumok, Vienna (2014). She represented part of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, and in 2024 was the subject of two concurrent survey exhibitions, Feelings at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Songs for Gay Dogs at Mudam Luxembourg, followed by Upstairs Downstairs at Raven Row, London, in 2025. She lives and works in Cologne with her husband, the artist Michael Krebber.

Institutional recognition for von Bonin has been substantial and sustained, built through Documenta, the Venice Biennale, and a string of European and American museum surveys rather than through auction visibility. Her Documenta 12 installation is consistently singled out in institutional writing as a career highpoint, and the pairing of two concurrent 2024 survey exhibitions in Frankfurt and Luxembourg underscored continued curatorial interest in her work. Descriptions of her practice recur around a few themes: the elevation of textile and craft-associated materials to the scale of major sculpture, a deadpan humor drawn from cartoon and mass-culture imagery, and a resistance to being read through any single political or identity-based lens, a position she has stated explicitly in her own words. No verified, attributable review quotations from named critics in major outlets were confirmed in the course of this research.

Von Bonin's auction activity has been modest in volume and concentrated primarily at Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne. Her current auction high is Doc Daffy (2025), which sold for USD 162,200 (about EUR 139,700) at Lempertz in Cologne on 5 June 2026, a result reported to have exceeded her previous record by roughly USD 32,000. That earlier record was set by Can Cry at Will (2007), which sold for EUR 119,700 (about USD 130,200) at the same house on 4 June 2024. Occasional lots have also appeared at other international houses, including a reported New York sale, though the bulk of her documented auction history runs through Cologne.

Von Bonin's museum and biennial record is deep, but her secondary market is thin and geographically concentrated, with almost all confirmed high-value results occurring at a single Cologne auction house. That combination means her auction record can move sharply on a single strong sale rather than reflecting a broad, liquid market. No catalogue raisonne is known to exist, so provenance and gallery documentation through Galerie Buchholz, Petzel, or House of Gaga carry added weight. Collectors should treat any auction comparison as a small-sample signal rather than a settled market trend.