Born in Linz, Upper Austria, in 1958, Rudi Stanzel now resides in Vienna. His educational journey led him from exploring writing and mime to performance and film, culminating in a focus on installations under the mentorship of Peter Weibel at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Since the late 1980s, Rudi Stanzel has been creating works that, while resembling paintings, are more aptly characterized as objects where paint is not merely a medium but the protagonist.
He produces concrete, largely monochrome non-figurative paintings and objects often structured around loosely defined geometric patterns, including grids and stripes, and modular arrangements.
Stanzel regards his work as resistant to precise conceptual interpretation. He also eschews conventional painterly concerns with part-by-part composition and spatial illusion, placing emphasis instead on the materiality of surface.
His innovative works have been featured in notable exhibitions such as "Vienna for Art’s Sake" at the Winterpalais, Vienna (2015); "The Brancusi Effect" at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2014); "China Revisited" at Galerie Ulysses, Vienna (2014); "Surface Content" at Landesgalerie Linz (2012); a solo exhibition at Galerie Julius Hummel, Vienna (2011); and "Painting: Process and Expansion" at mumok, Vienna (2010), among others.
