Volker Via Lewandowsky was born in Dresden in 1963. From 1982 to 1987 he studied at the Academy of Art in Dresden. Between 1985 and 1989 he staged independent performances in the GDR with the avant-garde group Autoperforationsartisten. In 1989 he moved to West Berlin. In 1991, he received a scholarship from the Berlin Senate for a residency at what is now MoMA PS 1 in New York. From 2008 to 2009, he completed work scholarships in Canada, Australia, Beijing and at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, among other places. In 2011, he worked as a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome. Between 2009 and 2018, he was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Art and Design Halle. Lewandowsky lives and works in Berlin.