Karl-Heinz Jeiter was born in Aachen in 1953. After an apprenticeship as a printer (1968-1971), he enrolled at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences in 1977, graduating from the Department of Design in 1982. Eventually, he would become a professor in his former university, teaching drawing there from 1988 to 1990. In 1991, he was made head of the design workshop at the Ludwig Forum for International Art (also in Aachen), and has been a freelance course leader in its artist programme since 2018.
Literally ‘drawing’ from his experience in the field of printing and preoccupied by the line as a means of representation, Jeiter was keen to combine these main interests in his practice, opting for printed linear designs. Technology and more traditional techniques, such as etching and drawing, are all invoked in this voluntary mixed media approach.
His oeuvre is constituted of what he describes as ‘line bodies’, which, through a mastered technique, blend their means into conspicuous ensembles of surfaces, pencil work, printed ink and an overall homogenous materiality. The hard-working artist’s motto is ‘nulla dies sine linea – no day without a line’.
In 1988, he was the recipient of the Aachen Design Award for Fine Arts. He has exhibited internationally on multiple occasions.
Jeiter lives and works in Aachen.
