In 1993, after finishing his studies at the Vienna Music Academy with a BA in Composition (1990) and BA in Electronic Music (1991), he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for graduate studies in computer art at School of Visual Arts, New York, NY (MFA 1995). The artist manages a large production facility in Bowling Green, OH and a studio in New York with several studio assistants and technicians.
Erwin Redl investigates the process of “reverse engineering” by (re-)translating the abstract aesthetic language of virtual reality and 3-D computer modeling back into architectural environments by means of large scale light installations. In this body of work, space is experienced as a second skin, our social skin, which is transformed through the artistic intervention. Due to the very nature of its architectural dimension, participating by simply being “present” is an integral part of the installations. Visual perception works in conjunction with corporeal motion, and the subsequent passage of time.
Erwin Redl participated in several major art residencies, e.g. in 2003 at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX and in 1997/98 at PS1 (now part of The Museum of Modern Art), Queens, NY.
The artist’s work was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, covering the Whitney Museum's facade with a three multi-color LED veils. In 2008 Erwin Redl created a sound and light installation for the Austrian Pavilion at the World Expo in Zaragoza, Spain. The Pacific Design Center’s new Red Building by Cesar Pelli features four permanent installations by the artist completed in 2013. Erwin Redl’s largest work to date is a computer-controlled 580 ft long outdoor LED-installation at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH completed in November 2010.
He won several major public art competitions with installations for the new New York Police Academy in Queens, NY, the Neuro Science Center at Wright State University, Dayton, OH and the Union Square / Market Street subway station in San Francisco, CA. Among the public art projects currently in production are installations for subway stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a walk-in steel sculpture for the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, OH and an interactive light installation for the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI.
His work is collected by prestigious national and international institutions, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Borusan Contemporary Istanbul as well as by prominent private collectors.
