Gerwald Rockenschaub (*1952) initially studied history, psychology and philosophy in
Vienna. He then attended the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. There he studied under
Herbert Tasquil, among others. The artist, who has also always worked as a DJ, had his
first solo exhibitions in 1984 at the Vienna ‘Galerie nächst St. Stephan’ and the ‘Vera
Munro’ gallery in Hamburg. His abstract, geometrically constructed oil paintings from the
1980s can be categorised in the ‘Neo-Geo’ style. Despite the positive response to his
painterly works, Rockenschaub turned away from painting towards the end of the 1980s
and increasingly focussed on sculptures and installations. From machine-made Plexiglas
panels and huge inflatable PVC objects to computer-generated animations, his work
remained characterised by an analytical approach and the principle of reduction to a few,
but essential elements and structures, even outside of painting. In 1993, Rockenschaub
participated in the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale together with Andrea Fraser
and Christian Philipp Müller. In 2007 he was represented at documenta 12 with several
works. Gerwald Rockenschaub lives and works in Berlin.