With LIFE SEX LOVE (opening on Friday 27 June 2025 from 6 to 10 pm as part of the gallery tour ‘Lange Sommernacht der K1 Galerien Köln’) we present artists who deal with interpersonal relationships, closeness and anonymity and the associated longings and disappointments: Intimacy, vulnerability, emotionality and sexuality, whereby (explicit) erotic depictions are not necessarily in the foreground. And the focus is on references to queer life.

We present 9 artistic positions from painting to sculpture to photography; with many, densely hung works, the presentation stands for diversity in a double sense.

The artists:

• Rebecca Bournigault – a video artist and painter from Paris – depicts the toxic relationship with her former girlfriend in her current watercolours.
• Max Gehlofen shows human-looking genitalia chiselled out of natural stone, suggesting that our idea of two clearly separate genders is outdated and that there are countless individual manifestations of nature.
• The Vietnamese artist Hà Minh presents a wall with collages of diary entries, sketchbooks and nude watercolours that address her ‘growing up as a trans woman in patriarchal Vietnam’.
• The drawings, paintings, embroideries and sculptures by Richard Helbin, an artist who lives and works in Düsseldorf, evoke long-gone values, which he interweaves with motifs of homoerotic longing.
• Franziska Koch is a young painter from Leipzig whose works are gestural and direct and trigger immediate emotions; themes include queer identity and sexuality.
• Cologne-based painter Lukas Moll focuses on the depiction of queer themes, in which he explores the subtleties of identity and the experiences of queer people in society.
• Maurizio Onano is a German illustrator, comic artist and author who specialises in queer themes. His comics and illustrations explore social issues, queer identity and poetic storytelling - often with a humorous or critical perspective.
• Stuart Sandford's photographic work, characterised by his extensive travels and involvement in queer communities in the UK, US and Mexico, often serves as a visual diary of his life and relationships. His provocative work has not only been recognised for its explicit depiction of male desire, but has also sparked discussions about censorship, intimacy and the role of the male body in contemporary art.
• Wojciech Wos explores queer themes, love, human connection and mental health in his figurative paintings, which evoke both tenderness and melancholy. These themes are highly personal and find their inspiration in the subtle complexities of emotion and identity.