ROLAND REITER – REITER ROLAND

Roland Reiter understands sculpture as a mode of thinking. His works revolve around materiality, craftsmanship, space, and movement – and around the question of how things acquire meaning. Industrial products, car parts, leather, fur, or hair are transformed into hybrid formations oscillating between the organic and the technical, between pop culture and art history.

Reiter’s practice draws equally from the visual worlds of the twentieth century and from musical subcultures. The automobile appears as a floating cult object, gleaming and charged with fetishistic allure. Metal pipes grow hair, machines take on androgynous qualities, and canvases emerge in the rhythm of jazz—created with drumsticks directly on the surface. The origin of the materials always remains palpable, yet their function is fundamentally transformed.

Between seriousness and irony, reference and withdrawal, Reiter creates works that resist clear categorization. They play with projection, desire, and cultural mythologies—opening a space of possibility in which the familiar appears strange and the strange unexpectedly familiar.

The publication brings together key bodies of work and examines Reiter’s multifaceted oeuvre from art-historical and cultural-theoretical perspectives. A focused insight into an artist who conceives sculpture as an open form – precise, poetic, and radically contemporary.

Special feature: The book exclusively includes a download link to an artwork by Roland Reiter—a digital extension of the publication and a unique addition for collectors.


Roland Reiter, Department of TransArts, Institute of Fine Arts and Media Art, University of Applied Arts Vienna