Roy Staab was born in Milwaukee and earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He spent most of the 1970s in Europe, where he conducted his own studies in drawing and painting. By 1980, he was living in New York, where he began creating outdoor installations using scavenged materials in his Brooklyn neighborhood. While aligned with early Land Art of the 1970s and 1980s in its use of natural materials found onsite, Staab's work is meant to be ephemeral, leaving no permanent mark on the land. Staab’s sculptures transform as sunlight casts shadows onto the ground, adding complexity to the existing compositions of lines and forms. Many of Staab's installations, such as Whirling Tennure, utilize a carefully composed set of vertical posts that form the foundation for material to be ‘drawn-in-space,’ floating above the ground. From a distance, these works form unified geometric patterns, while up close, they fragment into lines and spaces that frame and reconfigure the surrounding landscape. Staab has traveled the world installing his works in Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Although some are documented through photographs and videos, many exist only in memory.
Sculpture Milwaukee is proud to partner with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship, a program of the Lynden Sculpture Garden with additional support from Joy Engine, to realize Roy Staab's outdoor installation at the Haggerty Museum of Art.
Roy Staab was born in Milwaukee and earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He spent most of the 1970s in Europe, where he conducted his own studies in drawing and painting. By 1980, he was living in New York, where he began creating outdoor installations using scavenged materials in his Brooklyn neighborhood. While aligned with early Land Art of the 1970s and 1980s in its use of natural materials found onsite, Staab's work is meant to be ephemeral, leaving no permanent mark on the land. Staab’s sculptures transform as sunlight casts shadows onto the ground, adding complexity to the existing compositions of lines and forms. Many of Staab's installations, such as Whirling Tennure, utilize a carefully composed set of vertical posts that form the foundation for material to be ‘drawn-in-space,’ floating above the ground. From a distance, these works form unified geometric patterns, while up close, they fragment into lines and spaces that frame and reconfigure the surrounding landscape. Staab has traveled the world installing his works in Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Although some are documented through photographs and videos, many exist only in memory.
Sculpture Milwaukee is proud to partner with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship, a program of the Lynden Sculpture Garden with additional support from Joy Engine, to realize Roy Staab's outdoor installation at the Haggerty Museum of Art.
