So who or what is RxAxLxF?
RxAxLxF is the artist name of Ralf H. Graf.
RxAxLxF’s career in the arts is versatile and spans more than 30 years.
Originally starting as a teenage street artist, he was ‘discovered’ by professional mentors and invited to study art at university level. He graduated in 1993 as Bachelor of Media Arts at the AKI Art Academy Enschede in The Netherlands, and was awarded in 1998 a Postgraduate degree in Design from the Art Academy Utrecht also in The Netherlands.
After his Bachelors, he started to work as an autonomous artist, mainly in the fields of multimedia art & photography. After his Postgraduate degree, he also worked as media designer and art director for various companies & organizations around the world. For the last 10 years, he also added the field of journalism to his job experience, specializing in investigative journalism.
While gaining job experience, he started to manage cultural & art events around the globe.
He has won several stipends and awards for his work, like the Pepinieres Award for young artists of the European Union and the State Stipend of The Netherlands. His work is currently sold by several galleries such as the Saatchi Gallery in Los Angeles and London.
Ralf has been based in Kenya since 2001. He has set up the multimedia design school NairoBits and the media production company SasaHivi Media.
Living & working in Kenya for more than 15 years has given him the valuable opportunity to have a deep understanding about Kenyan arts & culture. Since then, much of his work has been deeply influenced by the Kenyan and African narrative.
Long time ago, with the photo camera of his granddad, he started to photograph the world around him, he started to write stories, started to paint, make music and much, much more. Since then he never stopped…
In between taking up the photo camera of his granddad and the time that you are reading this text, he
® worked as social worker with street youth in Heerlen (NL),
® studied at the Art Academies of Maastricht (NL), Brussels (BE), Amsterdam (NL), Wroclaw (PL), Dresden (DE) and Enschede (NL),
® graduated in 1993 as Bachelor of Media Arts at the Art Academy Enschede (AKI Artez),
® graduated in 1998 with a Postgraduate degree in Design from the Art Academy Utrecht (HKU) ,
® set up a production atelier in the Bijlmer area (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijlmermeer) of Amsterdam,
® build up a multimedia design school (NairoBits – www.nairobits.com) for ghetto youth in Nairobi (Kenya),
® set up a multimedia production company (SasaHivi Media – www.sasahivi.com) in Nairobi,
® organized several cultural events and festivals,
® managed and produced several music bands,
® worked as artist, designer, photographer, art director, manager, investigative journalist and researcher on numerous projects,
® worked as creative and business consultant for private businesses, NGO’s, government and UN agencies all around the world.
® published and exhibited his work on numerous occasions and in numerous locations,
® won several stipends and awards for his work.
And if you want to know even more than the above about RxAxLxF, just contact him: