Underground Art Series

Helmut Koller is primarily known for his colorful, bold, and festive paintings of animals. Koller grew up in the beautiful Austrian countryside. After completing his training as a photographer and taking a brief professional detour to Germany, he became the official photographer for the Vienna State Opera. For seven years he photographed superstars like Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Leonard Bernstein, and Rudolf Nureyev. Feeling confined in Europe and eager for the ambition of America, Koller moved to Manhattan, and then to Palm Beach, Florida, where he now resides.

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In 1987, Koller made the transition from photography to painting, and exhibited his super realistic “new pop” paintings of wild animals for the first time in the summer of 1998. Today the rich and colorful world of Koller appeals to collectors on four continents. He has produced several books, including Animals by Koller, which was published in 2010 and updated in a 2018 reprinting.

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Koller pioneered “Kollerism,” which is defined by the realistic representation of form and the abstraction of colors. In his own words, “These paintings are iconic portraits of sentient beings, supreme beauties without a reference of time and space, esoteric manipulations of nature.”

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Koller was selected as the fifth artist for the Underground Art Series at Wells Fargo Center because of the attention he brings to the animal kingdom and anti-poaching efforts. As part of this exhibition, Brookfield Properties made a donation to the WildAid Fund in honor of Earth Day 2020.