Rolf Laven
Prof. Dr. Rolf Laven is a Vienna-based visual artist, researcher, and art educator whose work is situated at the intersection of sculpture, painting, installation, and socially engaged art. His artistic practice follows a process-oriented and research-based approach that consistently connects aesthetic practice with social responsibility, education, and participatory collaboration.
Trained in sculpture/plastische vormgeving at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Laven developed an early interest in spatial, installative, and material-based forms of expression. His sculptural works explore the relationship between body, space, and social context, while his paintings open gestural and abstract visual fields that address collective experience and emotional resonance. Installative works extend these approaches into public space, creating sites of encounter, interaction, and reflection.
Rolf Laven earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with an internationally recognized dissertation on Franz Čižek, founder of the Viennese Juvenile Art Class and a key figure in modern art education, widely regarded as the “Father of Art Education.” In his research, Laven examines Čižek’s aesthetic-pedagogical concepts in both historical and contemporary contexts and investigates their relevance for current practices in art mediation, creative education, and participatory learning.
As part of his scholarly work, Laven also served in a curatorial capacity at the Wien Museum, where he was involved in Čižek Research, contributing to the academic analysis, contextualization, and presentation of archival materials, art-educational concepts, and historical positions. This research forms an essential foundation for his ongoing work at the intersection of art, education, and social practice.
A defining feature of Laven’s artistic and academic work is his socially engaged and participatory approach. He understands art not as a finished object but as a social process created collaboratively with diverse participants. Numerous projects have been realized in cooperation with schools, students, communities, artists, and international partner institutions – often in public spaces, intercultural settings, or within educational and community-based frameworks. In doing so, Laven connects artistic research with questions of participation, sustainability, identity, and social change.
Alongside his artistic practice, Rolf Laven has been active for many years in academic teaching and research. He is Professor of Art and Design Didactics at the University College of Teacher Education Vienna and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and the Vienna University of Technology.
In both research and teaching, he engages deeply with community-based learning, service learning, and interdisciplinary STE[A+]M approaches. As leader and coordinator of numerous international, EU-funded research and development projects, he integrates artistic practice, educational innovation, and social transformation.
Rolf Laven’s work – in art, research, and teaching – is guided by a clear conviction: to understand art as an open, dialogical, and transformative practice that empowers people to actively shape their environment and develop new perspectives on social reality. For him, aesthetic education and artistic practice are central instruments for social dialogue, cultural participation, and sustainable change.