Josef Florian Krichbaum was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1974. He studied painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he graduated with distinction. Today, he lives and works as a freelance artist in Vienna and in the Hausruck region of Upper Austria. He has been represented by Bakerhouse Gallery for eight years.
Krichbaum’s work moves between Pop Surrealism, classical painting and contemporary visual culture. In his paintings, he combines the aesthetics of the Old Masters with elements of comics, fantasy and pop culture. At first glance, his pictorial worlds appear playful and accessible, yet they are technically highly precise and conceptually layered. Through meticulous craftsmanship, Krichbaum builds his paintings from numerous thin layers of oil paint, creating almost three-dimensional compositions that oscillate between realism and imagination.
A central figure in his recent body of work is the “Kid Guard”: a childlike guardian who looks at the world with wonder, openness and quiet confidence. These figures represent a form of naive wisdom — positive, unprejudiced and at the same time deeply reflective. Especially in a time marked by uncertainty and transformation, Krichbaum’s works open up a space for lightness, hope and new perspectives, without ever becoming superficial or merely decorative.
In 2025, the Museum Angerlehner in Thalheim bei Wels dedicated “Kid Guards”, his first solo museum exhibition in Austria, to this important body of work. The exhibition was curated by Austrian writer Franzobel, who described Krichbaum’s art as a remarkable combination of brilliance and patina, future and past, childlikeness and intellectual reflection.
In 2026, Krichbaum continued his “Kid Guard” series through a special collaboration with PEZ International. Under the title “PEZ Arts”, he created “Kid Guard”, the first artistic PEZ dispenser, conceived as a limited collector’s object. The special edition was produced in an edition of 5,000 pieces and celebrated its world premiere at Dschungel Wien in Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier. It was subsequently presented at the Affordable Art Fair Vienna on a dedicated Special PEZ stand by Bakerhouse Gallery.
Works by Josef Florian Krichbaum are held in international collections and renowned institutions, including the Albertina in Vienna. His art stands for precise, highly crafted painting that does not understand childhood as nostalgia, but as an artistic attitude: curious, open, alert and full of imagination.
