Short bio
Galo Moncayo is a Vienna-based artist, architect, and educator whose practice operates at the intersection of contemporary art, architecture, fabrication, and applied research. His work explores how material processes, technology, and environmental forces can shape spatial thinking, artistic production, and new forms of public engagement. Through installations, objects, and experimental systems, he investigates adaptive and energy-conscious approaches to making and inhabiting space.
His projects have been exhibited internationally in the United States, Germany, Mexico, and Ecuador, including the solo exhibition Estructuras Existentes at the Museo Antropologico y de Arte Contemporaneo (MAAC) in Guayaquil. Across his artistic practice, Moncayo is particularly interested in the performative potential of materials, the relationship between infrastructure and aesthetics, and the role of experimentation as a cultural method.
Alongside his studio work, Moncayo has developed an extensive academic career focused on creative practice and interdisciplinary research. He is currently Senior Artist at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte), where he teaches and conducts research at the Institute of Architecture, Department of Energy Design. Previous positions include Visiting Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Experimental Architecture in Innsbruck, and Assistant Professor and Head of Sculpture Area at Indiana University Bloomington, where he led undergraduate and graduate curricula while overseeing workshop and fabrication facilities.
In parallel to his academic work, Moncayo collaborates with the Vienna-based architecture office Exikon on research-driven design projects linking conceptual development, environmental performance, and material realization. He has also been invited as a visiting artist and lecturer at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University and The George Washington University, as well as universities in Germany, Mexico, and Ecuador.
Moncayo holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Zaha Hadid Master Class), an MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art.