Alex Stenzel

Alex Stenzel (born 1965) is a German-American artist and former fashion designer who is known for a new style of abstract overpainted photographs and innovative designs in architecture, fashion and product design.

Product design Stenzel owns patents trademarks, and copyrights in fields as widely ranging as fashion, general gift items, computer accessories, food products, architectural designs, screenplays, workout programs, and computer games. In 2004, Stenzel designed and patented a bread less cucumber sandwich trademarked Gorilla Sandwich, a hollowed-out cucumber filled with such ingredients as walnuts, avocado, olives, seaweed and flax seed oil.

Architecture In 1999, Stenzel conceived an interactive sculpture for Berlin, "B1-Be Tower 1". It was one of the earliest designs for a modern 'twisted' tower structure. Stenzel described it as a multi-story structure built of glass, steel, and video monitors, all arranged in the shape of a large crystal. On the inside, the sculpture is designed to function as a platform to connect to the Internet....Hundreds of images are beamed from behind the glass...photographs sent by e-mail...from all over the world...all serve as a reminder of the world's unity. After 9/11, a year before the memorial competition, on 9 April 2002 Stenzel wrote a letter to Mr. Whitehead at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, proposing to use the idea for a memorial. Stenzels' design was exhibited at the Don O'Melveny Gallery in 2002.

Visual arts Stenzel has produced oil paintings, collages, sculptures, photographs and overpainted photographs. In 2001 Stenzels' exhibition at the Absolute L.A. Biennial Art Invitational was exhibited at the Coleman Gallery and sponsored by the German Consulate.

Overpainted photographs For Stenzel the process of making an overpainted photograph begins by photographing the surfaces and textures of artifacts marked by time and weather. Stenzel believes that weathered artifacts exhibit distinct marks in different location in the world and has traveled extensively to hunt down unseen structures and patterns. Stenzel has been written about in the German media and books and featured in documentaries as an art nomad. On walls or rusty steel doors Stenzel finds "fractal images": colors and forms that look like an abstract painting. "A truthful moment can only be depicted with a complex fractal image as a starting point," Die Zeit. Later, in a studio, he paints over the enlarged photographs with oil.

Solo exhibits 2001 L.A. Biennial, Coleman Gallery, Hollywood, CA 2002 Don O'Melveny Gallery, Hollywood, CA 2007 Paul Fisher Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida 2009 Don 0'Melveny Gallery, Hollywood, CA