Kienholz, Edward (1927-1994), American sculptor, born in Fairfield, Washington. Brought up on a farm where he learned the practical skills of carpentry and plumbing and where he began to paint, Kienholz attended Eastern Washington College of Education.

In Las Vegas in the early 1950 s he began to construct wooden figures in relief, sometimes incorporating objects from junkyards. By 1956 his creations were too large to hang on walls and by 1959 had evolved into nearly life-size freestanding constructions. The works depicted squalid American locales and fused strong psychological content with social realism. Roxy's (1961) recreated a Las Vegas bordello, while The Beanery (1965), considered his masterpiece, was a reproduction of a bar. It includes 17 figures displayed under dim lights and sprayed with a compound of food and cleanser smells.

Kienholz married photographer Nancy Reddin in 1972, and from 1973 they collaborated on sculpture. They moved to West Berlin (1974) and for the next few years focused on German cultural themes. They subsequently divided their time between Germany and Hope, Idaho, where they owned an art gallery. Kienholz's works are in the permanent collections at such museums as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.