Andreas Sagmeister

Andreas Sagmeister was born in 1966 in Ried im Innkreis (Upper Austria). From 1981 to 1985 he studied at the Fachschule für Gold- und Silberschmiede in Steyr, and from 1985 to 1991 at the Hochschule für künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung in Linz (today the Kunstuniversität Linz) under Professor Helmuth Gsöllpointner, where in 1991 he gained his diploma in the Metal master class. In 1992 he completed civilian service. Since 1993 he has worked as an independent artist in metal sculpture, art in architecture (Kunst am Bau), jewellery and design. From 1998 to 2008 he ran the Kunststück studio-gallery in Reichersberg. He is a member of the Innviertler Künstlergilde (IKG), sculpture network and IG Bildende Kunst / Vienna.

His work is close to concrete art and minimalism. His main motivation is “to describe volume, invent form and define space”. He works chiefly with steel (often corten and stainless steel) and occasionally with wood and other materials; he rules chance out of his work entirely, and the shapes arise from precise planning. An essential part of his concept is the tension between what the viewer expects and what the work actually shows.

Works and exhibitions (selection): “Stadtwächter” — two five-metre vertical forms in matt stainless steel on a roundabout in Ried im Innkreis (the winning design in a competition by the town of Ried and the IKG, 2020); a large sculpture for the campus of Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China (2009); a study stay at the “domus artium” studio of Upper Austria in Malo, northern Italy (2009); “Personal Structures – Open Borders”, Palazzo Mora, in the context of the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); “Tatsachen”, solo exhibition, Museum Schloss Obernzell, Germany (2019); “Metall und mehr”, Upper Austrian State Museum Linz (2019); “Zwischen den Himmeln”, Botanical Garden Linz (2021); “Raum greifen”, Galerie Villa Claudia Feldkirch (2021); Skulpturenweg Freilassing (2020). Numerous Kunst am Bau works (churches, schools, municipal offices, retirement homes in Upper Austria). Catalogues “Andreas Sagmeister – Plastik und Objekte” (2012) and “Chengdu Projekt China” (2012).

At the Art in the City festival he showed the work “Wendung IX” in 2018 (corten, Široká street, České Budějovice).