ABOUT | STOHEAD

STOHEAD - THE ARTIST

Stohead lives and works in Berlin.

Beginning his creative path in the late 1980s within the southern German graffiti scene, he has focused for over three decades on the formal dissolution of lettering. By translating linguistic elements into surface, rhythm, and color, Stohead creates works that think typographically, act painterly, and vibrate visually.
A pioneer in bridging subcultural aesthetics and contemporary fine art, Stohead successfully transitioned his raw street style onto canvas in 2002. Working with strict geometric frameworks, custom developed tools, and precise color application, he builds layered compositions from words and lyrics where characters become fragmented, transparent, or nearly illegible, exposing the architecture of language while withholding immediate meaning.

Today, Stohead occupies a distinct position within the global Urban Art landscape. His dense international exhibition history includes major gallery showcases, most recently his 2025 solo exhibition The Double Headed Pigeon at Galerie Ostendorff, alongside Speerstra Gallery and Galerie Le Feuvre & Roze in Paris. His institutional presence spans the Von der Heydt Museum, the Urban Art Biennale at Völklinger Hütte, and exhibitions across San Francisco, Bangkok, and Rio de Janeiro.

Stohead’s visual language scales seamlessly across diverse dimensions. His monumental commissions include The Pencil in Heidelberg, standing as the city's new landmark and Germany’s tallest Urban Art mural at 84 meters, a 10 X 9 meter mural in Denmark, and facades for corporate hotels in Berlin and modern large scale residential estates.

This adaptability makes his aesthetic highly sought after across diverse markets, ranging from subcultural streetwear icons to global luxury brands. His portfolio further extends to ultra premium, site specific commissions, including permanent installations.
Across all iterations, his work remains a cohesive exploration of calligraphic abstraction.

Credits:
Painting by Akut

EXHIBITONS

Solo Exhibitions

2025 The Double Headed Pigeon, Galerie Ostendorff, Münster, Germany 2024 Got to Move, Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland
2024 Stops, Alter Wartesaal im Bahnhof, Herne, Germany
2023 The Message, Speerstra Gallery, Paris, France
2020 Alphabet Street, WL86.9, Münster, Germany
2019 Ephemeral 2.0, Galerie Le Feuvre & Roze, Paris, France
2018 Written Abstraction, Galerie Schimming, Hamburg, Germany
2018 Roundtrip, Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland
2017 Roots & Reality, Galerie Droste, Wuppertal, Germany
2017 Recomposition, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris, France
2017 13 Strokes, BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2016 Smoke in my Periphery, Galerie Schimming, Hamburg, Germany
2016 Borders, Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland
2015 La mort d’écriture, Banana Gallery, Mannheim, Germany
2014 Now, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris, France
2013 Radicalligraphy, Galerie Ruttkowski68, Cologne, Germany
2013 evolution, Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland
2013 Decomposition, Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2025 Arcana Arcanorum, Avantgarden Gallery, Milan, Italy
2024 Karambolage 3, Kanya & Kage, Berlin, Germany
2022 Outside In, Kanya & Kage, Berlin, Germany
2021 Letters, Urban Spree Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2020 Made in Berlin, Galerie Ostendorff, Münster, Germany
2020 Næstved Kunstby Festival, Næstved, Denmark
2019 Urban Fine Art 2, Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA), Munich, Germany
2019 Coetus Exhibitionem, Galerie Le Feuvre & Roze, Paris, France
2018 Paint. Sleep. Repeat., Peggy Gallery, Bremen, Germany
2018 Shout out Rhimes, Draw Clouds and Lines, Schau Fenster, Berlin, Germany
2018 Contemporary Transformations, Duke Contemporary Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand
2017 Contemporism, Zimmerling & Jungfleisch, Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
2016 Karambolage Zwo (Duo Show with Heiko Zahlmann), Zimmerling & Jungfleisch, Saarbrücken, Germany
2016 Karambolage (Duo Show with Heiko Zahlmann), BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2015 Urban Art Biennale, Völklinger Hütte, Germany
2015 Concrete Alphabets, 886Geary, San Francisco, USA
2015 Scope Art Fair Basel (represented by BC Gallery), Basel, Switzerland
2014 REkollekt, Galerie Borchardt, Hamburg, Germany
2013 Potse 68, Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2013 Hypergraphia, BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2013 REkollekt, Die Kunstagentin, Cologne, Germany
2012 Popup Alte Münze, Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2012 &Friends, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris, France
2012 REkollekt, Bethanienhaus, Berlin, Germany
2011 Popup Altes Casino Hamburg, Circle Culture Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2011 Broke, Schaufenster Projektraum, Berlin, Germany
2010 Versteckspiele, Galerie im Namen des Raumes, Berlin, Germany
2009 Young Blood, Kunstverein Rottweil, Germany
2009 Write Now, Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany
2008 Scratch the Surface, Soulgallery, Berlin, Germany
2008 Call It What You Like!, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark
2007 Fabulosas Desordens, Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2007 Wakin Up Nights, De Pury Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland
2007 Still on and Non the Wiser, Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
2007 We Are The People Who Are Darker Than Blue, Reinking Projekte & Peter Borchardt, Stilwerk, Hamburg, Germany
2006 Coming Soon, Reinking Projekte & Contemporary Art Projects Blashofer, Berlin, Germany
2006 Six Fingers vs Vicious Gallery (Pop-up Show), Hamburg, Germany
2006 Carhartt Gallery Opening, Carhartt Gallery, Weil am Rhein, Germany
2005 Smell of Paint in the Air, K3 Kampnagel, Hamburg & Westwendischer Kunstverein, Gartow, Germany
2005 Passion des Sammelns (Sammlung Reinking / Federkiel), Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2005 Minimal Illusions, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
2004 Characters to Hold, Pictoplasma (1st International Conference on Character Design), Berlin, Germany
2003 Getting-Up, Galerie Elbchaussee 8, Hamburg, Germany
2003 City Kingz, The Showroom, Brussels/Ghent/Antwerp, Belgium
2003 Da Sein – Positionen zeitgenössischer Kunst, Ernst Barlach Museum, Ratzeburg, Germany
2003 Constructiones Urbaines, Taxie Gallery, Paris, France
2003 Kunstschlacht, Worldatelier & Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany
2002 Getting-Up, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
2002 Kosmopolite Festival, Hôtel de Ville Bagnolet, Paris, France
2002 Canvars, Galerie Horizont der Documenta, Kassel, Germany
2002 Urban Discipline, Astra-Hallen St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany
2002 Tribus Urbaines (Fête des Cultures), Brussels, Belgium
2001 Urban Discipline, Alte Postsortierhalle, Hamburg, Germany
2001 Gamble Can, Gera, Germany
2000 Urban Discipline, Former I-Punkt Skateland, Hamburg, Germany
2000 Graffiti auf Leinwand, Kunsthof Dargast, Rügen, Germany
2000 Getting-Up, Schweriner Schloss, Schwerin, Germany
1999 Graffitiart, Phonodrom, Hamburg, Germany

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions (Selection)