Alexander Koch (*1973 in Altena, Westf.) is a curator, author and gallery owner, as well as a lecturer, mediator and advisor. He co-founded KOW gallery in Berlin and the Neue Auftraggeber program in Germany.
Since 1998, he has been responsible for numerous exhibitions, publications, and events that advocate socially oriented art and address pressing issues. In theoretical writings, Koch has laid foundation for a theory and historiography of the withdrawal from art since 2002. Since 2005, texts on the functional differentiation of the art world and on a socio-political interpretation of artistic practices have followed. The 100+ exhibitions to which he contributed include own curatorial projects as well as collaborations with international artists such as Santiago Sierra, Katharina Grosse, Renzo Martens, and Barbara Hammer. More recently, Koch has been active in cultural-political contexts. In 2023 he publishes his literary debut, the story “The Last Day of the Year”, in which he deals with the drowning of his girlfriend and his own near-death experience.
Koch studied painting, photography and conceptual art at the HfBK Dresden and the HGB Leipzig from 1994 to 1999. From 2000 to 2005 he was a lecturer at the HGB and, together with Beatrice von Bismarck, founded and headed a project department for the integration of curatorial practices into the artistic curriculum.
In 2003 he co-founded Galerie Jocelyn Wolff in Paris and in 2008 Galerie KOW in Berlin, which he has since run with Nikolaus Oberhuber. KOW represents international artists such as Candice Breitz, Hiwa K, Franz Erhard Walther and Tobias Zielony. He has been co-initiator and chairman of Neue Auftraggeber / New Patrons in Germany since 2008, and director of the Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber / New Patrons Society since 2017. Since 2013 he has also initiated New Patrons projects in Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, India and other countries.
