b.1941

Born in Neumarkt am Wallersee, Austria, Kiefhaber, at the age of thirteen, studied at an international summer academy held by Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg. Following a period of study at the University College, Dublin, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he remained for two years. His bourgeois upbringing saw him become an accountant with a large firm while continuing his studies at the Viennese school of Fine Arts with Fritz Martinz. His early work is informed by the youthful archaeological excavations he participated in as well as a fascination with dolls and puppets that he playfully deconstructs.

His mature work finds its orientation in Picasso and Miro’s dreamlike world of birds and stars which Kiefhaber transforms into his own language of symbols of faces, stars, moon and leaves.

He abandoned the corporate world in 1983 and held first solo exhibition in 1984. Recently he has been creating glass sculptures with artisans in Murano.