Manfred Wakolbinger turned to art after training in metalworking and toolmaking. Initially jewelry design with wife Anna Heindl. Attends seminars with Bazon Brock at the University of Applied Arts. There follows a six-month stay in London. From 1980 sculpture and photography. Numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Among others Documenta 8 and Venice Biennale.

The photographs Manfred Wakolbinger brings back from expeditions on the world's oceans show the dance of the salps that seems to have sprung from an ocean galaxy. He subsequently deconstructs both the colour and the complexity of the rare phenomenon until finely shimmering membrane stars shine in the dark water, which he projects into the sky. With his head back and his gaze directed upwards, he momentarily shakes the supposedly binding categories of above and below, air and water, sky and earth - and causes one or two free-floating thoughts. © Mona Horncastle (Text from the catalogue book "Space is the Place")
 

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