Born in 1973 in Graz, Austria, Gerhard Petzl has spent over thirty years shaping a creative language that lives between art and daily life. Now working between Vevey, Switzerland, and Kalsdorf/Graz, Austria, he is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice embraces both the traditional and the unexpected. His materials range from bronze and wood to recycled objects and even chocolate—each chosen for its ability to tell a story about transformation. Petzl’s art is not confined to one medium or technique; it is a continuous dialogue with time, process, and renewal. For him, creation is inseparable from living—every act of making, cooking, or collecting becomes part of the same rhythm of awareness.
The Four Masks Collection
In his Four Masks Collection, Petzl turns familiar organic remnants into contemplative works of art. Each mask—made from egg shells, fir needles, woodchips, or onion husks—reveals how something discarded can be reborn with meaning. Preserved in resin, the masks exist at the intersection of fragility and endurance, decay and preservation.
The Fragile Egg Shells Mask, soft in tone and built from shells of five-minute eggs, plays with the duality of delicacy and persistence. The brittle shells, once bound for the trash, become part of a meditation on vulnerability. Sealed in resin, they speak of the fine balance between destruction and renewal, and how even life’s simplest moments can hold quiet strength.
The Nordmann Fir Needles Mask, created from a recycled Christmas tree, carries a reflective nostalgia. What was once a seasonal symbol of joy becomes a lasting tribute to time’s passing. Petzl transforms this fleeting remnant into an enduring work, suggesting that even short-lived rituals can be vessels of reverence and continuity.
In contrast, the Woodchips Warrior Mask embodies resilience. Made from forest woodchips bound in resin and hand-painted, it has a raw, earthy energy. Petzl channels the forest’s texture into something ceremonial—a reminder that strength is often found in what endures, not in what dominates. The “warrior” here is not one of battle but of balance, finding harmony between the human hand and the natural world.
Finally, the Onion Lover Mask emerges from the overlooked corners of domestic life. Made from leftover onion husks gathered in the kitchen, it celebrates the intimacy of the everyday. The onion’s layers mirror emotional depth—each translucent husk a reminder of the hidden beauty in what we peel away and forget.
Together, these four works form a quiet statement about presence and transformation. Petzl does not separate art from life; instead, he allows them to flow together. Cooking, working, and creating are all part of one continuous act of awareness. Through resin, he preserves not only objects but moments, giving them a kind of timeless breath.
In his hands, the discarded becomes sacred. He invites us to see what we usually miss—to notice the poetry in waste, the texture of living materials, and the subtle grace of impermanence. His masks feel like mirrors, asking us to look inward, to recognize our shared fragility and strength.
Moon and Earth
In Moon and Earth (2025), Petzl’s exploration continues through a new language of fabric and paint. The 30×30 cm mixed-media collage began with a purchased print, layered with aged cotton fabric—a humble material given new purpose. Using an acrylic airbrush, he developed his distinct “wrinkle designs,” delicate textures that recall landscapes seen from above or the uneven surface of skin and stone.
Each wrinkle is both accidental and deliberate, a meeting point between control and chance. Petzl later refined these textures with fine painted lines, letting intuition guide precision. The result is a surface alive with memory, where past and present coexist.
In this work, as in his masks, Petzl reveals his philosophy: creation is an act of renewal. By reclaiming used or forgotten materials, he challenges the idea that art must begin with something pure or new. Instead, he finds beauty in what remains—the wrinkles, the residue, the quiet stories of materials that have already lived.
Moon and Earth becomes a meditation on time and transformation. The reused fabric holds the softness of age; the paint breathes new life into it. It’s an intimate balance between permanence and impermanence, suggesting that every ending can also be a beginning.
Through both the Four Masks and Moon and Earth, Gerhard Petzl reminds us that art does not have to shout to be profound. It can whisper from the edges of the everyday, transforming what we overlook into something meaningful. His work bridges decay and renewal, grounding abstract ideas in the tactile world. In Petzl’s universe, creation is not separate from existence—it is existence, unfolding quietly, layer by layer, like life itself.
