Markus Redl

Markus Redl (born 1977) is an Austrian illustrator, sculptor and author.
==Art==
Markus Redl began a degree in psychology at the University of Vienna before changing to the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he studied from 1998 to 2004; his teachers were Ingeborg Strobl and Erwin Wurm.
As a sculptor, Redl works primarily with marble and bronze, but he also incorporates steel and wood into his work. Drawing is another focus, along with literature, and is part of a path that leads him to sculpture and is like writing for him; text and writing play a central role in all aspects of his oeuvre. “In his topics, he uses signs, ciphers, texts and symbols to go around the existence of things and the relations between meaning and appearance, e.g. in the Brecht Cycles”.
In 2004, Redl began work on Die Bibliothek der Steine (Library of Stones), creating a conceptual framework that relates postmodern varieties of art to stone and its traditional, artisanal processing. “Markus Redl is an artist who sees his self-image as an creator not in the reproduction of figurative reality, but in the making of a new, complex, even complicated reality”. His artistic work is characterized by statements that cancel one another out: “A subversive act of refusal, of questioning contexts of meaning, becomes evident”. The post-structuralist mode of reflection and deconstruction is transformed and visualized as an eye that cannot see itself, but knows of its own existence. Redl has been working on Library of Stones Part II since 2020: “an attack on the archive […] authors form an anarchive”.
His most important collector is the German businessman and patron of the arts Reinhold Würth; the collection owns the largest ensemble of Austrian art outside the country. For Reinhold Würth the artist created a walk-in sculpture (Obdach) from a 45-tonne block of marble over the course of 14 months. This monumental work was installed at the Abfalterhof (Villa Preuschen) in Salzburg in 2011.
Markus Redl lives and works in Vienna.
==Exhibitions (selected)==
Markus Redl’s first major solo exhibition was held in 2005 at the Neue Galerie in Graz, curated by Günther Holler-Schuster. He then began working with the gallery owner Mario Mauroner in Salzburg and Vienna; he also collaborated with Galerie Chobot and Galerie Kandlhofer in Vienna. Works by Redl can be seen at the Würth Sculpture Garden at company headquarters in Künzelsau-Gaisbach as well as in the Museums Würth and associated exhibition spaces.Cf. C. Sylvia Weber für die Sammlung Würth (ed.). Einblick, Ausblick, Überblick – Die Sammlung Würth, Band 5. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2024, ISBN 9783899294538, pp. 13, 457–459, 691–693.
===Solo exhibitions===
* Zwischen den Ufern, Galerie Splitter Art, Vienna, Austria. 2024
* Flussmitte, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria. 2021/22
* MUDRAS, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria. 2017
* Markus Redl – Vogelfrei, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria. 2015
* Betrachtungen – Arbeiten aus 10 Jahren, Galerie Chobot, Vienna, Austria. 2015
* Nächstes Jahr ist auch noch ein Tag, Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Austria. 2005
===Group exhibitions===
* “A.E.I.O.U. – Österreichische Aspekte in der Sammlung Würth”, Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany. 2013; Art Forum Würth Capena, Italy. 2017; Galleri Würth Hagan, Norway. 2020See C. Sylvia Weber für das Museum Würth (ed.), A.E.I.O.U. – Österreichische Aspekte in der Sammlung Würth. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2013, ISBN 9783899292725, pp. 156f.
* Sculpture Garden, Carmen Würth Forum, Künzelsau, Germany / Opening. 2017
* “Von Hockney bis Holbein – Die Sammlung Würth in Berlin”, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany. 2015Cf. Reinhold Würth, Thomas Gaehtgens, Beate Elsen-Schwedler, C. Sylvia Weber, Hermann Parzinger, Michael Eissenhauer, Peter-Klaus Schuster, Von Hockney bis Holbein. Die Sammlung Würth in Berlin. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2015, ISBN 9783899293227.
* Strukturen, kunstGarten Graz, Austria. 2015
* Gedachte Wirklichkeiten / Abstraktion in der Skulptur, NöART Niederösterreich Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kultur, touring exhibition, Austria. 2015
* “Galerie der Moderne”, Stiftsmuseum Klosterneuburg, Austria. 2023; 2014
* Würth Skulpturengarten, Schloss Arenberg, Salzburg, Austria. 2013
* “Der optische Fingerabdruck des Menschen”, NöART Niederösterreich Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kultur, touring exhibition, Austria. 2013See Dagmar Chobot and NöART - Niederösterreich Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kultur (eds.), Der optische Fingerabdruck des Menschen. Das Porträt in Skulptur, Malerei, Foto und Zeichnung. St. Pölten, 2013. ISBN 9783950344615, pp. 56–61.
==Publications==
Markus Redl made the acquaintance of Josef Mertin, this led to a collaboration with his daughter, the actor Anne Mertin; Redl created stage pieces for the Fringe theater group Stadt Theater Wien, later known as Fritzpunkt. Here, he also collaborated with the Swiss theater maker Fred Büchel.See Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, Kunstsektion, 1010 Wien, Minoritenplatz 5 (ed.): Kunstbericht 2012, p. 35 (German). After publishing a number of text collages and essays he started working together with the publisher Batya Horn; his first play, a grotesque, was published in 2024.
* Nichtschwimmer_in. Ein Wir_stück in einem Akt. Groteske. Vienna: Verlag Edition Splitter, 2024. ISBN 9783951976358.
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* Unabkömmlichkeitsbegründungen – Stein 85–126. Vienna: Drucksorten Redl, 2011. ISBN 9783200023963.
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==Further reading==
* C. Sylvia Weber für das Museum Würth 2 (ed.), Weitblick. Reinhold Würth und seine Kunst. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2020, ISBN 9783899294033, pp. 21, 173, 242.
* C. Sylvia Weber für die Kunsthalle Würth (ed.), Von Kopf bis Fuß – Menschenbilder im Fokus der Sammlung Würth. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2012, ISBN 9783899292565, p. 55.
* Werner Spies, C. Sylvia Weber and Julia Drost im Auftrag des Museum Würth (eds.), Im Blick des Sammlers. Neuerwerbungen der Sammlung Würth von Kirchner und Schlemmer bis Kiefer. Künzelsau: Swiridoff Verlag, 2009, ISBN 9783899291490, p. 168.
Category:1977 births
Category:Austrian illustrators
Category:Austrian people
Category:Sculptors
Category:Author