Background
Staab was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America on September 9, 1941, the son of Roy William Staab, an artist, painter, and advertising designer.
Staab was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America on September 9, 1941, the son of Roy William Staab, an artist, painter, and advertising designer.
Staab studied painting and graphics at the Layton School of and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
In the 1970s, he lived and traveled in Europe, based in Paris and Germany. From 1980 to 1993, Staab lived in New York City. He currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (United States of America).
After experimenting with painting and watercolor, in the 1970s artist Roy Staab focused on the art of the line on paper.
In 1979, Staab took his art outdoors. Since 1983, he has worked exclusively in nature with nature, making ephemeral environmental site installations: sculpture that is often made of reeds above water, where reflection is part of the work.
Staab’s creations are site-specific. He works with local, found materials.
The artworks devolve back into the landscape—seashore, river, wetland, or forest—after Staab’s act of creation in a place is finished.
Staab’s creative process at a site includes his own performance, sometimes involving performative community participation. In his creative realm, Staab gathers materials, creates, tends, and photographs his work, and offers direction and interpretation to participants and viewers. Staab’s first international show was the 1990 Summer s Festival of Jyvaskyla, Finland.
Staab has since been invited to create installations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Japan, and Italy, among many other places.
Roy Staab has been awarded a Japan/American ist Exchange Creative ist Fellowship, residencies at the Sapporo Museum and Yokohama Museum of (Japan), a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Gottlieb Foundation Award, the Joan Mitchell Award, New York Foundation for the s award/Sculpture, New Jersey State Council on the s grant, and New York State Council on the s grant, among other honors.
