gon Zippel was born in Timișoara, Romania, in 1960 to German parents. When Nicolae Ceaușescu rose to power in 1964, the Zippels presciently left for the Mannheim-Heidelberg region, Germany, to begin life anew. After a stint in the German Bundeswehr, 1979-1981, Egon studied graphic design at the University of Mannheim, and received a Fulbright scholarship comprising an introductory month at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the academic year of 1984-85 at the University of Texas in Austin. Over the next few years, he studied computer graphics at the New York Institute of Technology, and continued with postgraduate studies at the Institute for New Media at the Städel Art Academy in Frankfurt 1993-1994 under Peter Weibel. During the early '90s Egon also lived in Milan, Italy, until eventually settling again in New York City in 1996. Currently he maintains studios in New York and Berlin. Egon believes in predetermination as well as free will and everything in-between. Wrestling with these contradictions makes life playful and infinitely more complex.