[2][4] While studying under the guidance of Sigmar Polke (1977-1981)[5] and Franz Erhard Walther[6] at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg, Herold met Günther Förg, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen and Werner Büttner.
[11] The ironic tendency of Herold's works which leave room for interpretation,[4][12] juxtaposed to the fact that he uses commonly found objects to create his artwork, influenced his style towards Marcel Duchamp's approach.
[9][13] These include construction materials like bricks, mattresses,[16] nails, socks, buttons, paper scraps and copper[4] making Herold's work to be associated sometimes with Arte Povera.
[5][6] He also uses eclectic household and food items, like tights, aged cheese, tea strainers, photos, and various plants,[1][9] thus, transforming the role of canvas by changing it into a support that outspreads "from the frame into the picture".
[22] In Knstlerische Medizin, Patho-Ontologie (Cabinet patho-psychologique) (1995), Herold presents a collection of glass bottles and jars, each one labeled in a way that at a glance seems scientific and legitimate.
Slender and angular, long-limbed and lacking in facial features, these figures writhe and contort into arresting body positions, as if in extreme pain or ecstasy.
[24][22] For Members Only depicts a big cardboard box, with the words of the title scrawled on its side, evoking a child's imaginary fort.
[3] He also portrayed different personalities like Mike Tyson,[27] Bertrand Russell, Lionel Richie, William Burroughs, Sean Penn, Barry White, Charles de Gaulle Mark Lombardi[6][28] and, he even has counted the number of fish eggs used for creating some of his caviar paintings.
[30][31][32] Herold's sculpted figures often are slightly distorted, filiforms, stretched to the point of breaking, often reaching towards something, pushing their body postures, while trapped in an unbearable state.
[33][26] Some of Herold's works include: G.O.E.L.R.O (1988), Hospitalismus (1989), The Bow (1989), Untitled (1990), Resteuropa (Rest of Europe) (1998), Rumsfeld (2004), Red Square (2005), Platz des himmlischen Friedens (2005), Lost in Tolerance (2006), Flamingo (2007).
[27][13][34][35] In 1989 The New York Times reviewer found the figurative paintings of Herold, Martin Kippenberger and Rosemarie Trockel exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum making "little sense in a pictorial context"[36] while in 1990, on the occasion of a group exhibition held at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, another The New York Times reviewer found Herold's caviar paintings "seminal and astral".