Alexander Koch (*1973 in Altena, Westphalia) is a curator and author, as well as a mediator, consultant, and lecturer. He was a co-founder of the KOW gallery in Berlin and of the New Patrons program in Germany.
Since 1998, he has been responsible for numerous exhibitions, publications, and events that advocate socially oriented art and address pressing contemporary issues. In theoretical writings since 2002, Koch has established a theory and historiography of the withdrawal from art. Since 2005, this has been followed by texts on the functional differentiation of the art world and the sociopolitical impacts of artistic practices. The more than 100 exhibitions in which he has participated include his own curatorial projects as well as collaborations with international artists such as Santiago Sierra, Candice Breitz, Hiwa K, Chto Delat, Katharina Grosse, Renzo Martens, Barbara Hammer, Franz Erhard Walther.
From 2013 Koch became active on the African continent and in other international relations. This was followed by a more cultural-political engagement in Germany. In 2021, his Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber/New Patrons Society was awarded the Future Prize of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft in Germany. In 2026, his literary debut is to be published: The Narrative “The Last Day of the Year.” In the text, Koch processes 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 directed a project department for the integration of curatorial practice into the artistic curriculum. Since then, numerous teaching assignments have followed. In 2003 he co-founded the Galerie Jocelyn Wolff in Paris and in 2007 the Galerie KOW in Berlin. Since 2007 he has been co-initiator and chairman of the Neue Auftraggeber in Germany and since 2017 he is managing director of his own NGO, the Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber.