After training in metalworking and toolmaking, Manfred Wakolbinger turned to art. Initially jewellery design with his wife Anna Heindl. Attends seminars with Bazon Brock at the University of Applied Arts. Spends six months in London. From 1980 Sculpture and photography. Numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Exhibitions include Documenta 8 and the Venice Biennale.

Copper and stainless steel are versatile materials from which Manfred Wakolbinger moulds expressive figures. The titles of the various groups of works, such as Galaxies, Placements, Tongue or Mirror, already hint at the contexts of meaning in which the sculptures are embedded. In the sculptures, form, material and content are brought together in a sensitive and intellectually challenging way to form a radiant whole that gives the viewer insights into other worlds and living spaces. The hidden becomes tangible and the seemingly mundane is rediscovered. The figures, sometimes floating, sometimes connected to a foundation or plinth, turn the innermost being outwards and turn it into a projection surface that provides an opportunity to question one's own existence.

Fotocredit: portrait of the artist © Kaja Clara Joo, sculptures © by the artist