Oliver Sieber + Katja Stuke (Böhm/Kobayashi)
Katja Stuke studied visual communication in Düsseldorf from 1988 to 1993, specializing in typography and photography/film. From 1993 to 1998 she worked with Michael Schirner. Together with Oliver Sieber, with whom she forms an artist couple and runs a joint studio in Düsseldorf, she publishes the photography project Frau Böhm, which evolved into Böhm/Kobayashi. Since 2006 Stuke has been a member of the board of the artists‘ association Malkasten and since 2020 she has been a member of the extended board of the German Society of Photography (DGPh). With Stefanie Diekmann and Oliver Sieber, she heads the DGPh’s History and Archives section.
Since 2010, Böhm/Kobayashi have curated the exhibition ANT!FOTO once a year at Kunstraum Düsseldorf and Künstlerverein Malkasten. In 2016, together with Oliver Sieber, she curated the main exhibition of the Festival of the International Photoscene Cologne, titled „Innere Sicherheit, the state I am in“. Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber have held teaching positions at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Dortmund University of Technology, and Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, among others.
Oliver Sieber studied Visual Communication at both the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld and the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf. He lives and works in his native city together with German photographer Katja Stuke. The two form an artist couple and have a joint studio. Since 2000 they have exhibited together abroad and in Germany. In 2005, both were Artist in Residence in Toronto (Canada), sponsored by the Goethe-Institut, and in 2006 Artist in Residence with an Ernst Poensgen Fellowship in Osaka, Japan, as part of the ArtEX program.
With Stuke, Sieber publishes the photography project Frau Böhm, later called Böhm/Kobayashi. The pair has curated the photography exhibition Antifoto once a year at Kunstraum Düsseldorf or Künstlerverein Malkasten since 2010. In 2016 they curated the main exhibition titled Innere Sicherheit, the state I am in of the Festival of the International Photoscene in Cologne.