As a designer and creator Wil Natzel straddles the line between art and architecture. Wil’s diverse body of work integrates new technologies to create interventions that resuscitate contemporary spaces and artifacts that have been scraped of all embellishment and meaning. Drawing from architectural sources he explores the cultural frameworks and natural phenomena that shapes us. He creates new environments and abstract objects that manipulate our perception and exposes the relativity of our unique experiences. His most recent works are in the form of animated architecture exploration devices.
As a graduate from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the cradle of American Modernism, with a Master of Architecture Wil has designed and created private commissions and public projects for The Soap Factory, Northern Spark, and SooVAC. He is presently an Artist-in-Residence with Twin Cities Pride. He has recently been awarded back to back grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board for his architecture exploration devices. His work has been featured in Wired, Design Milk, MN Original, and numerous design blogs. He has also served as a visiting architecture critic at the University of Michigan, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Minnesota, and Iowa State University.
His artist centered practice has an open and inclusive approach to collaborating with institutions and other artists including the Perot Museum of Science and Nature, UCLA Gamelab, and Minnesota Children’s Museum. He has collaborated with architect Ania Jaworska for MoMA Ps1 and the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
