Karl Gietl was born in the Cape province of Woscester in 1970. He was schooled in Benoni and in Johannesburg...
He first began exhibiting in 1994. Since then he has exhibited extensively, both localy and internationaly. The Pretoria art museum and the contemporary museum of modern art in Santiago, Chile, both in 1995.
In 1998 Karl Gietl won the Volkskas Atelier Award which gave him the opportunity to live and work in Paris.
Between 1999 and 2002 Gietl lived, traveled and exhibited in France, Holland and Belgium. After a short stay in Spain, he returned to South Africa at the beginning of 2003. Karl Gietl now lives and works in Troyeville, Johannesburg.