Vita

Exploring inner visions of femininity, gender identity and erotic desires, Kruppa employs a blended approach of traditional painting and digital processes to create his evocative imagery. In his "Coven of Corals" work, Kruppa lays out a series of 78 Tarot cards by diving into the depths of a wildly soft, dreamlike visual cosmos. Spinning the ancient divination tool to the tropes of his own journey, he gets in touch with the very subject of his art in an almost ceremonial, intimate and vulnerable way.

Born in 1987 in Solingen, Germany, Tobias Kruppa completed his Abitur at Gymnasium Vogelsang Solingen in 2006 and moved to Düsseldorf to study physics. During his studies, he received a Cusanuswerk fellowship and published scientific research at international journals such as the Physical Review Letters. Kruppa focussed his scientific work on computational soft matter physics and graduated from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in 2015 with a Magna Cum Laude Ph.D. in physics.

After his graduation, he found employment in the automotive industry where he worked for almost 5 years as an IT analyst, specializing in digital product design and usability research, with assignments in Cologne and London, UK.

His desire for artistic self-expression, intrinsic since childhood but dormant for years, was woken anew when he attended a "Summer Camp for Adults" in 2019, which provided a gentle and appreciative setting to re-connect with the inner child. While playfully exploring activities such as yoga, meditation or building forest shelters, lucid visions emerged, pointing towards a life dedicated to sharing his inner pictures. A uniquely loving and meaningful way to be connected with the world, and with the self.

Later that summer, a pilgrimage on the Caminho Português de Santiago and a seminar on vocation and inner visions helped him to articulate his core values - Courage, Creativity and Authenticity -, finally setting in motion an unstoppable path to live and work in accordance with these values. During a solitary retreat to the countryside in the winter of 2019, he started drawing erotic scenes from imagination - thereby discovering a mode of artistic self-expression which has fuelled his work ever since.

Early 2020, he found the courage to take his dreams seriously and decided to be a full-time artist - clearing the path for countless miracles to come his way.

Since then, Tobias Kruppa hosted his first art exhibition in Cologne, sold more than 100 prints of his works as well as numerous originals to a worldwide audience. He concluded the year 2020 by creating the first anthology of his work, the erotic art book "Licking Lion" - a carefully handmade volume, which enables collectors to follow the very beginnings and early development of his work in the erotic subject.

Sparked by an intimate self-realization encapsulated in this initial cycle of erotic artworks, Kruppa started working on his Tarot cards in 2021, drawing further inspiration from a stay in Lisbon, Portugal.
What started as a vision to marry spiritual self-search with erotic phantasies became a foundational artistic process, the results of which can be explored on this page. 

A second, dedicated exhibition of Kruppa's work followed in the autumn of 2021 - this time in Berlin, Germany - and showcased the onset of his Tarot work, which eventually evolved into the "Coven of Corals" series.

Marking his international exhibition debut, Kruppa's art was chosen by a jury to be displayed during the Seattle Erotic Art Festival 2021, an annual art fair hosted by the Pan Eros Foundation in Seattle, The United States of America.

By panel review, Kruppa's work was also selected to be featured in the book "Best of Erotic Art 2020", a volume compiled and published by the Erotic Art Exhibition London which is scheduled to arrive at book dealers in autumn 2022.

Dr. Tobias Kruppa's "Coven of Corals" was funded by a cultural grant provided by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia ("Auf geht's" 2021).

Keen observers may spot some of his work in the streets of Cologne-Ehrenfeld.

For inquiries, please do not hesitate to reach out via:

tobias.kruppa@posteo.de