Gerhard Kehl was born in 1964 in Westerwald, where he grew up. Following his school-leaving exam, he moved to Berlin to study communications and American studies, focusing primarily on popular media, mainly comics. Important elements of this area included the general theory of signs (semiotics) as well as questions of the depiction and representation of truth and reality. Toward the end of his studies, Kehl worked on the project development of a cartoon studio. He continues to translate comics and also does rough translations for film and television. Kehl has been exhibiting his artworks since 1992. At first these consisted exclusively of paintings in glossy enamel on canvas. A small gallery in Berlin-Kreuzberg presented Kehl’s works in connection with prominent American pop art, which caused the tabloids to crown him “Rising Star of the Berlin Art Scene”. The absence of brushstrokes in the enamel paintings and the use of the –KEHL- logo were meant to help establish a brand, and at the same time allow him the freedom to reveal less of himself as a person. The strict, repetitive visual language also helped to fix the brand’s image. A highlight of the exhibits around this time was „New German Art“ in the Beatty Gallery in Sydney. From 1994 to 1999 Kehl lived with one foot in New York, where he rented a work space every summer in the rooms of the New York Studio Program. In 1995 the Galerie Deschler opened its doors with Kehl’s Blauer Serie (Blue Series). Since then they have worked closely together, and the gallery has presented Kehl’s work in numerous group and individual exhibits. Kehl began working with wood in 2001. His draft sculptures are finished by traditional woodcutters and turners in the Erzgebirge Mountains, and afterwards he paints them by hand. At the end of 2001, the Kunsthalle Osnabrück showed his previously unpublished sculptures accompanied by a review of ten years of enamel painting under the title: KEHL – Volkskunst (Folk Art). A high point in 2003 was the exhibit Left Hand – Right Hand, at the 789 Art Space in Beijing, where Kehl presented a six-foot-tall lacquered open mouth made of wood, which he, together with a group of Chinese assistants working in an old factory, put together in three weeks. In 2005 and 2006 Kehl took part in the exhibit Die obere Hälfte (The Upper Half), in which the bust since Auguste Rodin was the central theme, with exhibits of Rodin, Picasso, Lüpertz, Meese and others (Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Kunsthalle Emden – Stiftung Eske and Henry Nannen, Museum Liner in Appenzell).