Stefan Zöllner

Master student of Prof. Rissa (Düsseldorf Art Academy). Contemporary German fine art, abstract paint

Since graduating from the academy, my work has moved between gestural abstraction, drawing, and conceptual reflection. For me, painting is a way of entering archetypal inscapes.

The starting point of my painting is an engagement with moments at the limits of experience—moments in which the philosophical mind-body problem becomes an immediate, lived reality.

In series like "Oscillations" (2017–2018), ideas from biology, cybernetics, Zen Buddhism, information theory, and philosophy serve as a matrix in which the painting emerges. This tension manifests in titles ranging from the spiritual ("Prana", "Negentropia") to the purely organic ("Assimilation", "Myzel").

My paintings follow an open process in which gesture and drawing grow out of a loose initial idea. Chance and error frequently take over, and I often destroy resolved passages when the painting stops working as a whole. Ideas initiate the process, but the image takes over. I hold it in a state of suspended order, where chaos and structure remain in equilibrium. Titles emerge only at the end, when the work begins to speak for itself.

Based in Cologne, Germany.

1982–84 – Philosophy and Musicology, Saarland University
1984–91 – Fine Arts / Painting, Art Academy Düsseldorf
1989 – Master Student (Meisterschüler) of Prof. Rissa

Group Exhibitions

2026 Maximalismus Düsseldorf, Köln, Deutschland
2026 Boygroup _ Art Artist
2026 Düsseldorf, NRW, Deutschland
2025 Transcode - Artartist 2025 Düsseldorf, NRW, Deutschland
2023 Au Dela De La Nature - Fabrik 45, Bonn, NRW, Deutschland
2023 Au Dela De La Nature - Städtische Galerie, Troisdorf, NRW, Deutschland
2023 Unartig Und Vogelfrei - Atelier Oeter, Rösrath, NRW, Deutschland
2023 Reaktor - Saarart23, Merzig, Saarland, Deutschland
2018 Kammerspiele - A24, Bergisch Gladbach, NRW, Deutschland
2017 Wer Schreibt, Der Bleibt - Galerie Peter Tedden, Düsseldorf, NRW, Deutschland
2017 Autopoietikon - Saarart11, Museum Haus Ludwig, Saarlouis, Saarland, Deutschland
2015 Kaum Zu Glauben - Scheunengalerie, Wesseling, NRW, Deutschland
2015 Möglichkeits(T)Räume - Kunstverein Frechen, Frechen, NRW, Deutschland
2014 Schmuh - Galerie Plan D, Düsseldorf, NRW, Deutschland
2014 Djungle Of Sculptures - Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin, NRW, Deutschland
2012 Ascension - Ostrale, Dresden, Sachsen, Deutschland
2010 I Know It When I See It - Barthoniaforum, Köln, NRW, Deutschland
2010 Interjection (Kurator Und Künstler) - Wp8, Düsseldorf, NRW, Deutschland
2007 Tease Art Fair Köln, NRW, Deutschland
2007 Artemiade Köln, NRW, Deutschland
2006 D...