Martin Honert

Honert was born in Bottrop, West Germany and attended the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1981-1988, taking his master class with Fritz Schwegler in 1985.

Drawings the artist made as a child of Santa Claus were transformed into a life-sized sculpture for his 2004 show at Matthew Marks (Catalogue Raisonné no.

Both pieces appear as the ordinary objects their titles describe: a red upholstered chair and a table with a plate of real Jell-O resting on top of it.

Yet, the artist also installed neon tube lights into the backrest and seat of the chair to make the upholstery glow, and a motor hidden in the table causes the Jell-O to tremble.

30) made for the German Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale borrows its subject and title from a children's book by Erich Kästner entitled The Flying Classroom.