Rudolf Stingel

The works of New York artist Rudolf Stingel (born in 1956) are a constant radical reflection on fundamental questions of painting. Unusual materials like carpet, painted aluminum, or Styrofoam place notions of art in question again and again. Painting and sculpture form a compound, conception and creative coincidence collaborate. Stingel’s works from the last twenty years stretch from works given names, patterns, scratchings where exhibition visitors actively participate in the process of emergence, through foot print images and Styrofoam objects, to photorealistic painted self-portraits. He plays with the idea of art and decoration by installing things on the wall that are usually found on the floor, and vice-versa. Humor, irony, and a clear commitment to minimalism form the core of his work. He combines his love of painting with a postmodern doubt, and often achieves an almost perfect balance between visualization and concept.

Large presentations of the work of Rudolf Stingel have taken place at Neue National Galerie, Berlin (2010), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007), the Whitney Museum, New York (2007), Museum moderner Kunst in Frankfurt (2004), and Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Trento (2001). In 2006, his work was included in the Whitney Biennial and in 2003 at the Venice Biennale.