Major influences that appear throughout his work are informed by a lifetime of multi-ethnic and street culture explorations. Eventually spending ten years as a graphic artist and art director for Topps Chewing Gum Company before becoming a full-time artist in 1993. The gritty vibrancy of the city, the Lower East Side and the Bowery further informed his iconography. His artistic career took form, first as a road musician throughout the midwest for ten years and later in 1982 graduating with a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac and Oshkosh and moving to New York City. Because his adoption records were sealed at the time of his birth, he does not know who he descends from and cannot be enrolled in any Native nations. As an infant he was adopted by German-American parents and grew up in Wisconsin. Kahlhamer was born in Tucson, Arizona, United States. His work has been collected by institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Seattle Art Museum, the Hood Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others. He is currently based in New York City, working from his studio in Brooklyn.
Brad Kahlhamer (born 1956) is an artist known for his multi-media practice, ranging from sculpture and painting to performance and music.