Gerwald Rockenschaub
Year of birth, place
1952
Austria
Role at the ZKM
- Artist of the Collection
Biography
Gerwald Rockenschaub was born in Königswiesen, Austria in 1952 and studied (1975-78) Philosophy, History and Psychology at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Vienna. He lives in Vienna.
In the early 1980s Rockenschaub worked in a drawing style that resembled graffiti, the simplified images interspersed with fragments of words. Between 1984 and 1987 he produced small, rectangular paintings in oil on canvas, in which simple, geometrical shapes, reminiscent of pictograms, were shown against glowing monochrome backgrounds. He then gave up painting entirely in order to concentrate on three-dimensional objects, producing coloured plexiglass panels, some with applique motifs, on broad enamelled boxes. In the late 1980s Rockenschaub turned his attention to both the boundaries and the totality of the exhibition space in which he placed installations made of plexiglass and dividing walls. His work became more conceptual and increasingly focused on site-specific interventions into the existing spaces using gangplanks, pedestals or viewing windows. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Rockenschaub has also been involved in music, initially as a member of a New Wave band, and since the late 1980s as a DJ.
Individual exhibitions (selesction)
1984 Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
1986 Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
1987 Barbara Glacistone Gallery, New York
1990 Galerie Walcheturm, Zürich
1991 Kunstmuseum, Luzern; Plakatwände f. Austrian Airlines, museum in progress, Vienna
1994 Galerie Walcheturm, Zürich; Wiener Secession, Vienna
1995 »OÖ«, Museum Francisco-Carolinum, Linz
1996 Galerie Susanna Kulli, St. Gallen
Group exhibitions (selection)
1981 Wiener Secession, Vienna
1983 »Woher sind wir wieso gekommen«, Klapperhof, Cologne
1987 »Aktuelle Kunst aus Österreich«, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
1988 »Schlaf der Vernunft«, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel
1989 Sao Paulo Bienal, São Paulo
1992 »Das offene Bild - Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945«, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster
1993 Biennale di Venezia, (Austrian Pavilion, with Andrea Fraser and Christian Philipp Müller), Venice; »Spiel ohne Grenzen«, Modernmuveszéti, Budapest; »Kontextkunst«, Steirischer Herbst, Graz; »Backstage«, Kunstverein, Hamburg; Kunstmuseum, Lucerne
1994 »Die Moderne oder die Überwindung eines Begriffs«, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna
1996 Manifesta, Rotterdam; »Compartments, The Great Divide«, Copenhagen, subsequently at Bricks & Kicks, Vienna
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]
In the early 1980s Rockenschaub worked in a drawing style that resembled graffiti, the simplified images interspersed with fragments of words. Between 1984 and 1987 he produced small, rectangular paintings in oil on canvas, in which simple, geometrical shapes, reminiscent of pictograms, were shown against glowing monochrome backgrounds. He then gave up painting entirely in order to concentrate on three-dimensional objects, producing coloured plexiglass panels, some with applique motifs, on broad enamelled boxes. In the late 1980s Rockenschaub turned his attention to both the boundaries and the totality of the exhibition space in which he placed installations made of plexiglass and dividing walls. His work became more conceptual and increasingly focused on site-specific interventions into the existing spaces using gangplanks, pedestals or viewing windows. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Rockenschaub has also been involved in music, initially as a member of a New Wave band, and since the late 1980s as a DJ.
Individual exhibitions (selesction)
1984 Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
1986 Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
1987 Barbara Glacistone Gallery, New York
1990 Galerie Walcheturm, Zürich
1991 Kunstmuseum, Luzern; Plakatwände f. Austrian Airlines, museum in progress, Vienna
1994 Galerie Walcheturm, Zürich; Wiener Secession, Vienna
1995 »OÖ«, Museum Francisco-Carolinum, Linz
1996 Galerie Susanna Kulli, St. Gallen
Group exhibitions (selection)
1981 Wiener Secession, Vienna
1983 »Woher sind wir wieso gekommen«, Klapperhof, Cologne
1987 »Aktuelle Kunst aus Österreich«, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
1988 »Schlaf der Vernunft«, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel
1989 Sao Paulo Bienal, São Paulo
1992 »Das offene Bild - Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945«, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster
1993 Biennale di Venezia, (Austrian Pavilion, with Andrea Fraser and Christian Philipp Müller), Venice; »Spiel ohne Grenzen«, Modernmuveszéti, Budapest; »Kontextkunst«, Steirischer Herbst, Graz; »Backstage«, Kunstverein, Hamburg; Kunstmuseum, Lucerne
1994 »Die Moderne oder die Überwindung eines Begriffs«, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna
1996 Manifesta, Rotterdam; »Compartments, The Great Divide«, Copenhagen, subsequently at Bricks & Kicks, Vienna
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]