Archives
Exhibitions
Toni Stegmayer und Andreas Rhomberg
Vernissage:
Wednesday, May 29 2019, 7—9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Hartwig Knack
Duration:
until July 13, 2019
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TONI STEGMAYER
BEING AND INTERPRETING
SCULPTURES
Galerie Straihammer & Seidenschwann presents new pieces by sculptor Toni Stegmayer. Powerful stone arches, aesthetic infinite loops, and perfectly balanced modular systems represent a significant selection of the sculptor’s oeuvre, which is decidedly independent and concrete, although the artist sees his origins in Wotruba, Hrdlicka, and Giacometti, among others.
Sculptor Toni Stegmayer takes up the topic of pure, interpretation-free art through his pieces. The result is stone sculptures that are almost concrete, that accept their materiality even while repeatedly putting it to the test. This space between experiment and result, between basic material and sculptural form, leaves only a narrow sliver of room for chance. And yet the works are astonishing, because they elicit the perception and knowledge of the viewer, who is drawn into the process of creation.
What the viewer sees is what exists; what is called for is not interpretation, but consideration of basic sculptural questions.
Artist, artwork, and viewer are essential aspects of reception. If a message is to be delivered through art, it must be interpreted as intended. Hermeneutics of all types has a long tradition of exploring approaches to artwork that is meant to be understood — and understood as intended by the author or artist.
Figurative art dictates what one sees. Context and artistic viewpoint convey the meaning. Spiritual art gives form to the unseeable. Non-objective, concrete art showcases materials, drawing the focus to structures, systems, and rhythms. The qualities of what is directly present become the topic: weight and mass, size and proportion, shape and surface, area and body, space and volume, tension and relaxation. All of these make up the existence of the art itself. It has the greatest possible autonomy, is free from speculation and interpretation, hides no secrets, but instead shows itself exactly as it is: open, clear, understandable, and pure.
This creates its beauty.
The presence of pure art is a statement in itself — about information and perception — and is therefore more relevant than ever.
(Written by Hannah Stegmayer)
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Biography
Trained as a stone sculptor, Toni Stegmayer has lived and worked in Kiefersfelden since 1957, and as a freelance sculptor and video artist since 1984. He has worked with George Brecht, Francesco Conz, Ben Patterson, Emmett Williams, and Geoffrey Hendricks, among others, and together with Hannah Stegmayer as the H+T Stegmayer art team. He has been a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Kolbermoor since 2016.
Awards and Grants
2014/15 Artist in Residence: Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice
2006 Tirol Science Fund (TWF) Grant (book project)
2005 Artist in Residence, Factory/Kunsthalle Krems (A)
1982 Scholarship for the Highly Talented from the Federal Ministry of Education and Science; 1st Place from the Danner Foundation for Building and Design, Munich
Images (Download):
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ANDREAS RHOMBERG
PAST GRANDEUR
PHOTOGRAPHS
Images of ruins most often represent the sober reality of conflict, natural disaster, and economic abandonment. But the way we perceive ruins is not as objective and uninfluenced as we might initially think.
The literary and visual representation of ruins has a long tradition. Our lust for ruins — which has informed European painting and literature since the 18th century, peaking in Romanticism — goes from Virilio to Marchand & Meffre and on to cultural reflections on modern ruins that are not as easy to transform into aesthetic or nostalgic niceties.
Most people find themselves moved by ruins and abandoned buildings or structures on a visceral emotional level; it is no accident that the pyramids, the catacombs of Paris, and Angkor Wat are visited by so many. From individual stones and buildings to entire cities, these abandoned legacies are snapshots of the past. These orphaned sites also inspire our imaginations in ways that go beyond a simple representation or sober documentation of history.
The works of Andreas Rhomberg feature vacant buildings and abandoned sites in the European region. There are photographs of factory ruins and palaces in various states of decay, isolated former public institutions such as hospitals and hotels, a disco that burned decades ago, or details from bedrooms that seem to have been recently inhabited. Many photos reveal a delicate sense of intimacy, showing forgotten interiors that retain traces of previous owners or floral elements of a sagging ceiling, while other photos show the cool, futuristic scenarios of industrial ruins. Some works seem carefully composed and have a sense of narrative and dramatic tension; composition, light, and processing transform old factories and dilapidated interiors into staged physical narratives.
Finding and photographing these subjects is not just about traveling, it is an urban archaeological quest for unseen places. The works are about architectural photography and urban exploring and, as such, are not to be seen as a direct attempt at reconquering urban spaces. Nevertheless, finding, exploring, and photographing abandonment can’t help but redefine the meaning of public space. Studying, preserving, and staging decay; visualizing former societal landmarks and symbols and they ways they change.
In times when the rapid pace of urban development, and so much else, continues to increase, these images succeed in drawing our attention to social reality in its artistic form. In this sense, Andreas Rhomberg is also a social documentary photographer. His pictures convey a great deal about all or about nothing, about life in the face of capitalism, waste, and neglect — all the immediate principles of our society, with or without crisis. As a result, these images can also be understood as an excellent and artful criticism of capitalism itself. (Written by Andrea Strasser)
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Biography
Andreas Rhomberg, born 1977 in Dornbirn, lives and works in Vienna as a graphic designer, photographer, and DJ.
He studied at the Höheren Grafischen Bundes-, Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna and has worked at several international advertising agencies as a graphic designer and art director.
Images (Download):
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top Botteleria, 2014-2018, HDR Technik, 80 x 120 cm — bottom left Roundabout, 2014, HDR Technik, 80 x 120 cm bottom right Legno teatro, 2014-2018, HDR Technik, 80 x 120 cm |
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Vernissage:
Wednesday, May 29 2019, 7—9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Hartwig Knack
Duration:
until July 13, 2019
Exhibitions
Nina Annabelle Märkl and Elmira Iravanizad
Vernissage:
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 7–9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Nina Schedlmayer
Duration:
until 25. May 25, 2019
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NINA ANNABELLE MÄRKL
MORPHOSES
OBJECTS AND DRAWINGS
Nina Annabelle Märkl creates drawings, sculptures, and installations with continually transitioning media and perspectives. It is observation that makes a drawing into a sculpture or space, or turns a sculpture in an installation into part of a drawing.
The artist creates intermediate states that show things in their possible forms — similar to a kaleidoscope — developing images and spaces that challenge the observer’s perceptual habits by creating stimulation and thus opening up sensual new possibilities to contemplate the things that exist in our world.
Shapes that initially appear to be abstract are actually elements that create a bring relationship between the observer and the drawing. These objects can be understood as spaces, landscapes, plateaus, outsourced displays of human emotion that then become part of the narrative. The images and arrangements suggest ideas regarding the permeability of humanity and its circumstances, people’s external and internal spaces, with an approach that is observational, selective, inspirational, and motivated by bringing things together. The simultaneity of opposites — proximity and distance, permeability and delimitation, creation and dissolution — is a determining criterion of Nina Annabelle Märkl’s work.
The images, whether an installation, arrangement, or drawing, stimulate the viewer, reveal something new, and trigger questions.
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Biography
Born on 12 December 1979 in Dachau, Germany
01/2015–03/2015
Artist in Residence Scholarship in New York City, International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP)
2011–present
Teaching drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich
08/2010—10/2010
Artist in Residency Scholarship in Düsseldorf, Pilot_Projekt für Kunst e.V.
08/2009—10/2009
Artist in Residency Scholarship in Szczecin, Poland
European Art Fellowship Upper Bavaria
02/2009
Diploma of Free Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Munich
10/2008
First state examination in Art Education, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
10/2005—02/2009
Study of Fine Art (Sculpture), Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Prof. Stephan Huber
02/2002—10/2005
Art Education studies, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Prof. Fridhelm Klein, Prof. Matthias Wähner
Images (Download):
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ELMIRA IRAVANIZAD
GATE
OBJECTS
Originally from Iran, Elmira Iravanizad now lives in Berlin and creates art set subtly on the verge between painting and sculpture. The often almost monochrome image surfaces of Iravanizad’s paintings are often broken by color and shape formations that imbue the images with structure and accentuation. At the same time, sculptures with forms that could have been extracted from painting emerge. They seem to grow out of a wall, or lie prone on the floor, detached from any reference. The sculptures are usually made of metal and ceramic, a combination of two very different materials, with the ceramics often assuming a nearly flowing character. The objects, once mostly black, have been increasingly infused with bright yellow since Iravanizad’s arrival in Berlin. For the artist, this color represents the cultural differences between Iran and Germany.
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Biografie
Born 1987 in Tehran. Lives and works in Berlin.
2014—2016
Postgraduate studies at the Berlin University of Arts.
2011—2012
MA of Fine Arts, Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design, London Metropolitan University.
2007—2011
BA in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University.
Images (Download):
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Vernissage:
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 7–9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Nina Schedlmayer
Duration:
until 25. May 25, 2019
Exhibitions
Robert Bodnar and Elfriede Mejchar
Vernissage:
Wednesday, 27 March 2019, 7–9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Bodnar: Angela Stief
Mejchar: Alexandra Schantl
Duration:
until 13 April, 2019
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ROBERT BODNAR
BINARY RESTRAINT
Photographs And Objects
“Photography” is a phenomena that is becoming increasingly intangible and incomprehensible in this day and age. The days of defining a photograph as a printed image on a sheet of paper are long past. Photography today is a ubiquitous technological principle, a social behavioral mode, and much more.
With Robert Bodnar, Galerie Straihammer and Seidenschwann presents an artist who is continually redefining the boundaries of photography.
Robert Bodnar explores new technical and conceptual forms of photography and photographic images in relation to human perception. By using hi-tech industrial materials and methods, he expands the definition of the photographic image and what it can represent. A “Digital Intermediate”, he follows the transition from analogue to digital and the transformation from digital to computational photography. He combines the traditional methods of photography with sophisticated digital technologies. He transfers photographic processes into real spaces to create installation art experiences. The conceptual reference points of the Binary Restraint series are raster, light, and perception. The pictures and installations playfully reference the origins of photography in the silver salt crystals of analog film, as well as current forms of images as abstract information embedded in the circuit boards of our electronic devices.
Bodnar’s historical canon ranges from photograms to Photoshop copy stamps. He makes the materiality of digital structures tangible, expanding the possible range of how photographic images can manifest.
Johan Nane Simonsen
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Biography
Born 1980 in Prague, Czechoslovakia
1991-1998 Secondary school in Vienna
1999 Studied Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Vienna (AT)
2003-2011 Studied Photography and Film at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
under Eva Schlegel, Matthias Herrmann, and Harun Farocki
2011 Graduated in Art and Photography under Matthias Herrmann (AT)
2003—present Numerous exhibitions and lectures at home and abroad
Lives and works in Vienna and Lower Austria.
Images (Download):
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ELFRIEDE MEJCHAR
ZUM 95. GEBURTSTAG
The oeuvre of this great Austrian photographer is extensive and varied. Much of her work is regarded today as an icon of Austrian post-war photography and it has become an important testimony of the era.
Over the course of her decades of professional life — first as a photographer for the Federal Monuments Office and, after her official retirement, for the TU Wien as a photographer of industrial monuments — she always took a close look at everything else that came across her path, from car wrecks to hotel rooms, from wood huts to traffic mirrors. With her superior alertness, Elfriede Mejchar has recorded and brought to life what would seem insignificant or even ugly, the traces of humankind in nature and in urban space. Not to mention her exceptional photos of tulips and amaryllis. Here, too, she found the decisive point of view to take the observer beyond the façade of superficial beauty and to discover something sculptural.
The exhibition shows a selection of her extensive work.
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Biography
Born 1924 in Vienna.
1941—1944 Photography apprenticeship and assistant certification in Germany
1958 First camera
1960 Master craftsman certification at the Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna
1947 Started at the Department of Historic Monument Research, later employed by the Federal Monuments Office, projects throughout Austria.
1954—1961 Photographed numerous artists in their studios and workshops.
1984 After retiring, freelance photography work and from 1984—1994 for the TU Wien, Institute of Art History, Building Archaeology and Restoration.
Images (Download):
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Vernissage:
Wednesday, 27 March 2019, 7–9pm
On the Exhibitions:
Bodnar: Angela Stief
Mejchar: Alexandra Schantl
Duration:
until 13 April, 2019
Exhibitions
Virginie Bailly und Krasimira Stikar
Vernissage:
Thursday, February 14, 2019, 7—9 pm
On the exhibitions:
Bailly: Elsy Lahner, Albertina
Stikar: Hartwig Knack, Art Historian and Cultural Scientist
Exhibition duration:
until March 16, 2019
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VIRGINIE BAILLY
DAPHNES REQUEST
Paintings
Belgian artist Virginie Bailly will exhibit her latest works at Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann for the third time.
Titled Daphne‘s Request, the exhibition is an exploration of Greek mythology, based on a dream in which the artist was transformed into a tree.
With broad brushstrokes and grand gestures, the artist translates her thoughts into painting. She paints exclusively in oil, preferring glaze techniques to give the subject ample brilliance and depth. Some of the elements — agglomerations of brushstrokes and splotches of color — seem to want to take on a whole new state of being from one moment to the next.
Bailly’s abstract paintings portray a dialogue between dream and the real world, fiction and reality, inside and outside, emptiness and abundance.
She creates organized chaos, using it to grasp incredibly dynamic tensions through the paintings.
Biography
Born in 1976 in Brussels
1993-1997 Studied Painting at the Ecole des
arts d‘Anderlecht
1998 Studied at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Montpellier (FR)
1995-1999Studied Painting at the Hogeschool
Sint-Lukas Brussels
2000-03 Postgraduate studies at the Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
Lives and works in Brussels.
Images (Download):
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Images left: right: 80 x 60 cm bottom:
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Krasimira Stikar
PUNKT – GEDANKE – FLÄCHE
Drawings
In her new works, created in 2018, the Krasimira Stikar delves into an exploration of movement, statics, time, and space. Lines and surfaces cover the sheets. The lines grows out of a point, the most original form of representation, they are the tracks of a moving point. These lines are born out of movement, and, as Roman Signer, Explosion (Line), 1982, puts it: “from the destruction of the absolute self-contained serenity of the point.”
Using points, lines, and symbols, we are brought to a plane of imagination that goes beyond rational thinking. Points and lines connect to supply information. Spaces and surfaces are created by means of points and lines situated on a two-dimensional surface. The abstract is transformed into something concrete and vivid. Things that are not sensory are made observable, analyzable, and reflective.
The artist takes a great amount of time, quiet thinking, and contemplation to create these sensitive aesthetic works. This calm concentration seems to wash over the observer when looking at the pieces.
Biography
1980 Born in Ruse, Bulgaria
2002 - 2005 Studied Computer and Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, graduated 2005 Mag. art.
1999 - 2002 Studied Animation at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia
1995 - 1999 Nedka Ivan Lazarova fashion school, Ruse
Lives and works in Vienna
Images (Download):
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Vernissage:
Thursday, February 14, 2019, 7—9 pm
On the exhibitions:
Bailly: Elsy Lahner, Albertina
Stikar: Hartwig Knack, Art Historian and Cultural Scientist
Exhibition duration:
until March 16, 2019
Exhibitions
Jenny Watson and Sophie Dvořák
Vernissage: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 7—9pm
On the Exhibition: Watson: Hannah Stegmayer, Author and Artist / Dvořák: Melissa Lumbroso, Albertina
Duration: until February 9, 2019
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JENNY WATSON | TALL TALES AND TRUE
PAINTINGS
Jenny Watson, born 1951 in Melbourne and one of Australia’s most important contemporary artists, represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1993.
She works with multi-part installations of painting, text, and sculpture. In her creations, she develops complex stories that have a feminist and socially critical bent while also allowing deep personal insight into her life. Her art explicitly addresses issues of female identity, with a boundary between autobiographical insight and fictitious findings that is deliberately unclear. Text and image do not necessarily align.
In 2017, a large retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney demonstrated the wide range of her work and its origins in conceptual art and the early punk movement.
The Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann is pleased to represent this internationally active artist in Austria.
Australian artist Jenny Watson (born 1951) came to the attention of a broad international public in 1993, when she represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. The head of the biennial, Achille Bonito Oliva, recognized the resounding combination of fiction and autobiography and expressed fascination with Watson’s artistic self-reflection, which claimed an autonomous position within the contemporary art scene.
The full installation she showed at the Biennale, Paintings with Veils and False Tails, consisted of canvas paintings with narrative drawings, panels with journal-like writings, and three-dimensional objects, namely ponytails and cloth bows. These attributes complemented one another to create typically feminine themes and the urge to identify the artist with them. After all, she is a dressage rider and breeds horses — a theme that recurs throughout her work, not only in this cycle. Several of the accompanying texts are written in the first person (“I feel like when my father used to dry my hair”) or focus on the artworks and their environment (“This painting is in the process of becoming important”). It is not unreasonable to assume a sexual allusion in the first case and ironic self-reflection in the second. The entire installation was impressive, intimate and sublime at once, and seemed to either reveal or at least comprehensively construct a psychological portrait of an individual. The viewer was overwhelmed and pulled into a strange space of intimacy.
However, anyone trying to nail Watson down about this narrative structure would have been disappointed. The connections between the texts and the images were only approximate: the paintings did not illustrate the text, and the text did not explain the images. Watson’s writings and images differ as much as possible from each other, making a palpable separation of the mental and visual apparatuses. The range of possible interpretations becomes an essential aspect of the work. Through their own personal interpretation, the observer experiences as much about themself as about the artist, becoming part of a psychoanalytic experiment, so to speak. At this point, it becomes clear that the artist is illustrating the process of interpretation. She invites the observer to interpret in sophisticated ways, scattering clues throughout different layers of drawing, providing complex and structured spaces for thought, and thus intervening to organize the observer’s experience.
The work, then, no longer reveals itself; it represents an elaborate form of conceptual painting, whose creator is participating in the current theoretical debate.
Jenny Watson’s work combines skillful, unembellished drawing with concise painted representations. Her imagery makes complex issues impressively visible, with image ideas that are coherent and metaphors reduced to the essentials.
Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann is showing her latest works, created during a stay in Japan in 2018.
1951 Born Melbourne, Australia.
1972 Diploma of Painting, National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne
1973 Diploma of Education, State College of Victoria, Melbourne
1978-84 Partner in Art Projects, Melbourne
Watson staged her first solo exhibition in 1973 and has since presented 60 solo exhibitions in Australia and 50 solo exhibitions in Europe, Asia, India, New Zealand and the United States.
In summer 2018 her work was shown in a solo-show – Jenny Watson. The fabric of fantasy- at the MCA Australia in Sydney.
Her work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions and is represented in state, corporate and private collections throughout Australia and overseas.
Watson currently divides her time between Brisbane Australia and Europe
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SOPHIE DVOŘÁK | ALL LAKES ARE TEMPORARY
Drawings and collages
On the one hand, my work is concrete in what it deals with. I usually work very systematically, within an action space that I — more or less strictly — define myself. The results, however, leave a great deal of openness and encourage interpretation. This can quickly open up an aesthetic moment, because the pictures are appealing and it is possible to see them as beautiful and interesting without knowing the context from which they emerge. For myself, however, in the foreground is the attempt to negotiate the complexities of the world, not in a stubbornly scientific way, but with an artistic and even playful approach.(Sophie Dvorák)
Cit: Seeing the world from above, from a distant, Icarian viewpoint - that is both the reality and the fantasy of every „cartographic eye“. For the map is a familiar and ideal abstract: a surface of projection and signs, where the infinitely large is transferred to a plane, with its multiple connections and interconnections. Any map could be a voyage in thought, connecting a passage and a territory, the readable and the visible, by capturing the infinite within the smallest detail. (Christine Buci-Glucksmann)
1978
born in Vienna, Austria
2004–2008
Study at the Academy of fine Arts in Vienna and at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland
Degree June 2008
2004/05
Schule für künstlerische Photographie, Friedl Kubelka
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Jenny Watson / Images (Download):
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images ohne Titel, 2018,
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Sophie Dvořák / Images (Download):
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Vernissage: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 7—9pm
On the Exhibition: Watson: Hannah Stegmayer, Author and Artist / Dvořák: Melissa Lumbroso, Albertina
Duration: until February 9, 2019
Press Information
Exhibitions
Karl Vonmetz and H.H. Capor
Vernissage: Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 7—9pm
On the Exhibition: Silvie Aigner, Editor-in-Chief of PARNASS and Lucas Cejpek
Duration: until November 24, 2018
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KARL VONMETZ | Desire - Shine
Sculptures
Karl Vonmetz designs sculptures. Even his jewelry pieces were small sculptures that could be not only worn but also set up for display. The artist’s preferred jewelry material was stainless steel, as for him not the material but the ideological value help primacy. For Vonmetz, his works were and are signs and symbols of his communications with people. Over the decades, and with the opportunity to use a large factory as an art studio, his sculptures began to grow and become more spatial. He has, however, remained faithful to the material of stainless steel, making only a few pieces in bronze or copper.
The exhibition gives an overview of the work of Vonmetz, who was first a goldsmith’s apprentice and then studied Metal Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, that ranges from his early smaller sculptures to major works created this year.
1950 Born in Merano.
1965–69 Goldsmith apprenticeship in Merano
1974 Studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna
1979 Graduated in Metal Design
1978 Became a member of the Austrian Artists’ Society
Prizes and Awards:
1977 Bavarian State Prize, IHM Munich
1979 1st Place in the Honor Awards design competition of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce
1979 Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Vienna
1981 Theodor Körner Award
Numerous exhibitions in Austria and abroad
Works in public and private collections
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H.H.Capor | Time Travel
Photographs
The Time Travel project questions the meaningfulness of the guest photo galleries of old grand hotels by creating an irritation in public space. In a performative act of self-empowerment, a portrait of H. H. Capor was added without the knowledge of the respective hotel.
However, the 13 postcards sent to the hotels to notify them of the interventions to their publicly viewable spaces provide no images of the act. The exhibition now shows the locations of the interventions, along with a short video clip of each placement.
Note:
On Saturday, November 24th, we will present another of Capor’s projects starting at 5 pm:
The film Places to Die for is – contrary to what the title suggests – not in the least pessimistic. In a way that celebrates life itself, the artist shows places in which he can imagine dying. Each one is intimately related to his life and travels. The film is made up of five short films of about 5 minutes each. They were filmed in 2017 and 2018 by various cinematographers and differ in their imagery.
Born 1948 in Vienna.
1963-66 Photography apprenticeship
1967-78 Studied Architecture and Business Management
1981Began making art
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KARL VONMETZ / Images (Download):
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Abb.1 Dämmerung, 2008,
Abb.2 Atelieransicht |
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H.H.Capor / Images (Download):
Rangun und Santiago, Fotografie, 2017
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Vernissage: Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 7—9pm
On the Exhibition: Silvie Aigner, Editor-in-Chief of PARNASS and Lucas Cejpek
Duration: until November 24, 2018
Press Information
Exhibitions
Judith P. Fischer and Gottfried Ecker
Vernissage: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 7—9 pm
On the Exhibitions: Nina Schedlmayer
Duration: until October 13, 2018
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Judith P. Fischer | PILLOWTALK
Judith P. Fischer was born 1963 in Linz, Upper Austria.
She studied sculpture at the University of Applied Arts under Wander Bertoni and graduated in 1991. She lives and works in Vienna and Enzersdorf an der Fischa in Lower Austria.
Judith P. Fischer’s work addresses the topics of change and transformation.Familiar forms and structures from nature and the everyday environment are placed in a new context. Form, texture, and color play central roles.
Her current series “Pillowtalk”, is about the contrast between the soft, sensual forms that one associates with a pillow and the stringent structure of their artistic manifestation. The bulky and massive forms of these objects are unique, their surfaces ensconced in delicate hand-drawn lines.
Equally finely structured are her pencil drawings, which originate both in conjunction with the sculptures and on their own. They show an interplay of lines and areas at the junction of abstraction and the harmony of nature.
Fischer’s work can be found in numerous public and private collections.
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Gottfried Ecker | New works on paper and book sculptures
Gottfried Ecker was born 1963 in Linz, Upper Austria and currently lives and works in Vienna.
Using classic images and design elements, the artist realizes a complex artistic concept.
His works are serene, poetic compositions that could have been inspired by films or scenes from a surreal theater play, and that evade exact definition.
In Ecker’s new book sculptures, precisely chosen content elements are densified into carefully arranged compositions. The anonymous figures seem to be extracted from everyday reality. This creates spaces located between reality, dream, utopia, and illusion, the mood vacillating between threatening and melancholy.
His multi-part, painting-like formations are reminiscent of the color palette of Baroque painters and show the intense focus of the artist on Baroque painter Poussin in particular.
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Judith P. Fischer / Images (Download):
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Pillowtalk 2, 2018
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Gottfried Ecker / Images (Download):
Studio view
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Childhood memory, 2018 |
Untitled, 2017/2018 |
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Conversation with the Birds, 2018 |
Vernissage: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 7—9 pm
On the Exhibitions: Nina Schedlmayer
Duration: until October 13, 2018
Press Information
Exhibitions Franz Xaver Ölzant
and Robert Zahornicky
Vernissage: Wednesday, Mai 23, 2018, 7pm
On the Exhibition: Elisabeth von Samsonow and Hartwig Knack
Duration: until June 30, 2018
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Franz Xaver Ölzant | Interlacings
Throughout a continuous six decades of making art, Franz Xaver Ölzant (born 1934 in Styria, Austria) has consistently prioritized the aesthetic appearance of his pieces over his personal artistic signature. One characteristic that has emerged over the course of his long career as an artist is the fact that Ölzant has always worked with very different materials, for example bronze castings, plaster models, aluminum panels, and wire constructions. Observing his sculptural oeuvre, one sees how the artist has evolved away from figural pieces, made during his time studying at the (former) Academy of Applied Arts, and towards amorphous and vegetative works. A repeating theme that surfaces in Ölzant’s oeuvre is imperfection: Holes, bulges, knots, blemishes, and rips are characterizing features of many of his works. His sculptures, which can be classified as organic abstractions, have become more monumental over the years of his creative work, with his pieces also becoming edgier and more dynamic. This exhibition shows works in bronze and wire together with wall panels from the 1970s to 2011. Also, don’t forget to visit Franz Xaver Ölzant’s large stone sculpture in the public square across from the gallery entrance (O6, 1982, diorite, 80 x 210 x 55 cm, Palais Rottal).
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Robert Zahornicky | Photograms
Although the first photograms were made in the mid-19th century, they did not reach the awareness of the general public until the early 1920s. Christian Schad and Man Ray developed their “Schadographs” and “Rayographs”, and Bauhaus teacher Laszlo Moholy Nagy created a theoretical and experimental foundation for this new type of artwork around the same time. Since the photogram technique doesn’t allow perspective views, Zahornicky uses other methods to achieve the impression of three-dimensionality. For his black-and-white photograms made from 1994–2012, the artist often worked with multiple exposures. Grains of rice, thin strips of paper, and clumps of dust are rotated in a series of two or three exposures, which are then superimposed to create an image that simulates several layers of spatial depth.
The dark background often evokes a feeling of endless space. Zahornicky puts this image to use with the series of photograms titled “Cosmos” (2012). The chaotically fine structures seem to float in cosmic distance, yet are nothing other than globs of dirt made of hair, dust, and sundry gunk that gathered under the artist’s bed. The topic of micro- and macrocosms is equally relevant in the “Universe” series from 1994, in which Zahornicky drips water on a glass plate before drawing in it with his finger. Surface tension causes the smears of water to remain, creating the impression of elliptical planetary orbits, yet also evoking images of a microscopic world seen through a microscope.
The visual language of “Rice Photograms” (1994) moves between open spheres where only a few dispersed elements make up the image, from a temporal-processual intensification of the throng of grains all the way to an extreme densification that fills almost the full dimensions of the image surface.
In his two-part work The Molussian Torso (1994), Zahornicky focuses on the human figure. Especially noticeable about this large-format piece is that, in contrast to photography, the photogram technique inverts the brightness values: Bodies appear bright and ephemeral, and light appears dark.
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Franz Xaver Ölzant / Images (Download):
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Robert Zahornicky / Images (Download):
Universum, 1994, |
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Kosmos, 2012, RC-Print, Unikat, 18 x 24 cm |
Reis, 9 Fotogramme, 1994, |
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Papierfotogramme, |
Vernissage: Wednesday, Mai 23, 2018, 7pm
On the Exhibition: Elisabeth von Samsonow and Hartwig Knack
Duration: until June 30, 2018
Press Information
Ausstellungen Virginie Bailly und Hans Lankes
Vernissage: Mittwoch, April 11, 2018, 7 pm
On the Exhibitions: Elsy Lahner, Albertina and Hartwig Knack, Cultural Scientist and Art Historian
Duration: unti Mai 19, 2018
Virginie Bailly
LICHTUNG
Painting
Artist Virginie Bailly is showing new paintings in her second show at Galerie Straihammer & Seidenschwann, created under the influence of Mannerist painters such as El Greco, Di Volterra, and Pontormo. She is fascinated by the colorful light contrasts of these painters, but is also coping with an initial rejection of the Mannerist style.
Contemporary sources of inspiration are equally prevalent in Bailly’s painting, including images of war-torn areas of the Ukraine, of earthquakes, typhoons, and terrorist attacks. And just like Michelangelo Antonioni, who films a building exploding in the desert from various angles in slow-motion, thus imbuing the catastrophic moment with an aesthetic and picturesque feel, Bailly uses filters to “pixelate” her images.
And so we see that abstract painting must by no means be apolitical.
Hans Lankes
LICHT UND SCHATTEN
Knife Cuts
Hans Lankes is fascinated by space and spaces, light and shadow. He transposes architectural motifs into abstract structures. He creates highly aesthetic delicate filigree images using an exceptionally fine cutting technique, toying with optical illusion and broken perspectives.
By utilizing the parameters of painting and drawing, yet extending them into the room, Lankes creates pieces of art that are on the cusp between graphic design and sculpture. These objects cast shadows on the wall. Not, as expected, in black or dark grey, but instead in different shades of red, or even brilliant green. PARNASS Art Magazine writes: “The delicate cuts of the knife seem to hover on a pillow of colored light.”
Virginie Bailly / Press-Pictures (Download):
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Interpuncties P43, 160x110cm, 2018 |
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Interpuncties P44,150x130cm, 2018 |
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Hans Lankes / Presse-Pictures (Download):
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Quarz 9, 28x18cm | Cloud schwarz, 40x18cm | Wandwesen 2, 38x18cm |
Vernissage: Mittwoch, April 11, 2018, 7 pm
On the Exhibitions: Elsy Lahner, Albertina and Hartwig Knack, Cultural Scientist and Art Historian
Duration: unti Mai 19, 2018
Press Information
Exhibitions
Albrecht Zauner und Uschi Janig
20.10. – 25.11.2017
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Press Information Download (PDF) |
Vernissage: Mittwoch, 29.11. 2017,19.00 – 21.00
On the Exhibition: Hartwig Knack, Kulturwissenschaftler und Kunsthistoriker
Albrecht Zauner and Uschi Janig will be present.
Ausstellungsdauer: 20.10. – 25.11.2017
Tues – Fri from 12 – 6 pm, Sat from 11 am – 3 pm
Location: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann, Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Wien
Densifications
Albrecht Zauner
Humans are a central theme in the oeuvre of Albrecht Zauner, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Joannis Avramidis. The interactions of body and space, proportions, and formal experimentation are often at the forefront. His materials of preference are stone and bronze. In this exhibition, plaster, steel, and straw also play important roles.
In his newest works, Zauner examines the language of bodies and the vibrations, the resonances, they incur. The artist attempts to capture the movement and lightness of a moment in massive stone.
At the center of his exhibition is a real scene he observed at the ocean, sculpturally reenacted indoors by Maria and Natalie.
These two figures of plaster, steel, and straw are related to the sun and ocean, to each other, to themselves, and to the people around them. This consequently gives exhibition visitors an integral and dialogical meaning. “Observing, comparing, showing, hiding, and evaluating — consciously or unconsciously, bodies begin to resonate and stories are created. The more realistic the portrayal, the more directly the resonation process emerges,” says the artist. For “resonance” also means the reactions and acceptance or rejection by the audience.
A third figure, of South Tyrolean marble, lays on the ground, wholly concentrated upon itself. Zauner has named it a-f. This is for the sound emanated by the unworked stone, stored on a wooden pallet, when set into vibration: middle A.
Smaller works of art and drawings accompany the exhibit.
Press-Photos (downloads):
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maria, 2017, Südtiroler Marmor, 150 cm |
maria 4, 2016, Bronze,3/5, L 25 cm |
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maria und Zeichnung von maria (150 x 110 cm) |
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Present Practices
Uschi Janig
For Uschi Janig, media like the internet, newspapers, and books are sources of inspiration, and where she researches about crises. Her work is based on photos and texts. Another important source of inspiration is her direct social work with groups of people who live at the edges of society, either existentially or due to health, who experience exclusion and are stigmatized. Janig is interested in their subjective means of coping with crisis, the solutions they practice, and their views of the society they live in. Another aspect focuses on institutionalized crises such as communication taboos, discrimination, racism, environmental pollution, and much more.
Chronologically, Janig began experimenting first in the field of painting, going on to work with installations on architecture, topology, and through direct interaction in their social and political fields. In recent years, her work has mainly been focused on drawing and painting, which the artist sees as a kind of retreat that allows her to think more about the two- or three-dimensional objects she produces and the activity itself. The same is true of her work processes of cutting out, dividing and warping, turning the foreground into the background, the painting into a sculpture. The generally abstract painting sculptures are made of light metal. Janig cuts out panels, warps them, and paints them – often on both sides – with oil, latex, and acrylic.
Press-Photos (downloads):
Vernissage: Mittwoch, 29.11. 2017,19.00 – 21.00
On the Exhibition: Hartwig Knack, Kulturwissenschaftler und Kunsthistoriker
Albrecht Zauner and Uschi Janig will be present.
Ausstellungsdauer: 20.10. – 25.11.2017
Tues – Fri from 12 – 6 pm, Sat from 11 am – 3 pm
Location: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann, Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Wien
Press Information
Trans-Forming
Veronika Veit, Sculptures and Objects
Leo Kandl, Photography
20 Oct. — 25 Nov., 2017
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Pressetext PDF-Datei |
Vernissage: Thursday, 19 October 2017, 7-9 pm
On the Exhibitions: Margit Zuckriegl, Curator
Duration: until November 25, 2017
Tues. – Fri. from 12 – 6 p.m., Sat. from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann, Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Wien
Trans-Forming
On the Tracks of Inevitable Change
Artist Veronika Veit, from Munich, is visiting the Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann with a group of works from 2015 and a spatial installation. Viennese photographer Leo Kandl joins her, presenting a concise selection of his now classic convolute of clothing photos. The title of the show is “Trans-Forming”. Curator Margit Zuckriegl explains: “The inevitable and often unnoticed aspects of change, particularly today in these times of fakeness and reality constructs, are an interesting phenomenon. The undefined aspects of forms and the transparency of materiality reflect the current contingency debates occurring in sociology, economy, and politics in an artistic context.” “Trans-Forming” refers to a process of change that emerges from forms that have been recognized as fixed and stable since ancient times, and allows new liquid formal analogies to arise.
In her series “Turning”, Veronika Veit transforms the presence of human figures into an ensemble of abstract husks. Presence is turned into absence — manifested by the remnants of the eliminated person: Clothing, husks, sculptures, bags, and shoes collide with balls, tubes, pipes, and stands. The observer looks on in shock at these supposedly everyday items, the life and will to merge of the objects inciting irritation and interest. Head over heels, figurines tumble from a skirt into a neck ruffle, insect-eyed bald-headed replicas ask for their right to live: Are we the result of a test?
For Leo Kandl, it is out of the question that clothing exists for humans to play games with their identity. The articles of clothing he photographs take on the role of the wearer, mutating into objects with symbolic character and a sculptural quality. Kandl doesn’t show clothed bodies – but rather shells that have emancipated themselves into their own shape, assuming a unique physicality. There is room for interpretation and association within this “existential difference”. Philosopher Hans Blumenberg ties his phenomenology of things to the difference between perception and imagination: He named his 1980 publication To the Things and Back Again (translation 2002), attesting to art a sphere of non-representation of things. These also belong to the realm of the fantastic, the insecure, the mutated, and the changed. Veronika Veit and Leo Kandl work in these intermediate spaces, hot on the tracks of the unavoidable and unsuspected in the processes of changing things.
Curator: Margit Zuckriegl
Press-Photos (Download):
Veronika Veit
Sculptures and Objects
Leo Kandl
Photography
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Flohmarkt, 1996 |
Gewand, 1996/2015 |
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Polstermöbel,1995 |
Theaterkostüm, 1994/2016 |
Press Information
Exhibitions Nina Annabelle Märkl and Elfriede Mejchar
7.9.2017 – 14.10.2017
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Pressetext PDF-Datei |
Vernissage: September 7, 7 - 9pm
On the Exhibitions: Hartwig Knack, Kulturwissenschaftler und Kunsthistoriker
Duration: until October 14, 2017
Tues. – Fri. from 12 – 6 p.m., Sat. from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann, Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Wien, www.galerie-sunds.at
Aggregates and Conditions
Nina Annabelle Märkl
Objects and Drawings
The line evokes spaces – a fold in a piece of paper makes a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional spatial form.
Nina Annabelle Märkl’s projects happen at the interface of drawing, installation, and sculpture. They dissolve genre boundaries in the same way that figure and object dissolve into a symbolic abbreviation, a technical fragment into organic bodies, recognition into non-recognition, representation into abstraction, proximity into distance. In their porosity, they create a space that oscillates between different levels of reality at the moment of transition. It is important to observe the simultaneity of things and their appearance(s), as well as the moment of distraction that is connected to our perception in a digital age, using analogue means.
By making pictorial elements recognizable, the objectivity of representation forms a contact point for perception. It creates a sense of familiarity that is associated with the recognizability of an object or a fragment. At the same time, it initiates a diversionary maneuver that removes certainty from what is seen, and almost imperceptibly releases the visible by taking the ground out from under it.
In her scenarios, Märkl designs fragile constellations of the existing that question habits of seeing and perceiving, while unfolding different perspectives at the same time, as if looking through a kaleidoscope. Reflections reproduce spatial forms that are real and others suggested by the drawing, taking viewers and engaging them in a dialogical interplay with the possibilities of the space.
(Nina Annabelle Märkl)
Press photos (downloads):
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Ich habe meine Arbeit immer sehr gern gehabt
Elfriede Mejchar
Photography
Elfriede Mejchar made her public debut as an artist at the Herbstsalon of Galerie Nächst St. Stephan in 1975. By then, she had been working for the Federal Office of Monuments for 21 years and had shaped our image of Austrian art and architecture. As a topographer, she learned to not take photos manipulatively, to not tell a story. She has traveled thousands of miles in the course of her professional life, and began to photograph what she found along the way: car wrecks, scarecrows, hotel rooms, and much more. Though she was commissioned by the Federal Office of Monuments to photograph things significant and great, she discovered things unremarkable and small for herself.
These photographs form the basis of her tireless studio and darkroom work, which she has been producing since the 1980s, and which is always open to associations and permeated by impressions and experiences. There she can confess to a radical subjectivity. She says of herself: I could never stop, and I always wanted to experiment and try out new things. The photographs shown in the exhibition are poetic collages that were created for Kremsmünster Abbey, along with her documentary work. The superimposed layers are like a pane of glass through which we can see our own thoughts and impressions.
Press photos (downloads):
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Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann present starting June 7, 2017:
Jenny Watson Other Lives and On the Edge of Something by K.U.SCH Renate Krätschmer and Sito Schwarzenberger
Introducing Viennese artist collective K.U.SCH (Renate Krätschmer and Sito Schwarzenberger) and Australia-based artist Jenny Watson: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann is exhibiting two artistic positions on text and lettering starting June 7, 2017.
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Exhibition Opening: 7 June 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
Opening: Hartwig Knack
Renate Krätschmer and Sito Schwarzenberger of K.U.SCH. will attend.
Exhibition duration: until 9 September 2017
Tues. – Fri. from 12 – 6 p.m., Sat. from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann, Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Vienna, www.galerie-sunds.at
In their upcoming exhibition, Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann will show works by K.U.SCH. Renate Krätschmer und Sito Schwarzenberger and Australian Jenny Watson in the charming “croissant house” gallery in Vienna’s old town. These two artistic approaches address the relationships between art, text, and lettering or symbols.
Jenny Watson
Born 1951 in Melbourne, Jenny Watson was inspired by the early works of US-American concept artist Joseph Kosuth and began an examination of the problems of sensual perception – of reality, identity, and the definition of an object – in the early 1970s. At the latest since 1993, when she represented her country at the Biennale in Venice, Watson has been one of the most prominent artists from the Australian continent exhibiting internationally. The distinctive aspect of her work is the combination of painting, text, and object, as well as the interaction of humor, irony, and simple yet striking subjects. Using the simplest of components – unprimed textiles, figures left in aesthetic rudiments, and hand-written short texts – Watson creates complex stories from her figurative images, which are on the one hand provide a feminist and social critique and on the other hand always allow diary-like personal insights of her life and can be interpreted as being self-referential.
The works on display are paintings and text panels, although the text and image are seemingly joined only visually. The paintings do not illustrate the text, and the text does not explain the images. The texts and the images diverge as far as possible in Watson’s work. Watson is on the one hand familiar with concept art pieces and, on the other hand, integrates banal personal aspects of everyday life into her art.
K.U.SCH. Renate Krätschmer and Sito Schwarzenberger
Humans, embedded in nature and cultural identity, trapped in societal norms and constraints that are sometimes criticized or even radically broken from, has been the central theme of the oeuvre of the K.U.SCH artist collective, founded in 1972 by Renate Krätschmer and Jörg Schwarzenberger (1943-2013) and joined in 2006 by their son Sito.
In a floor piece that has conquered part of the wall of the exhibition space, Sito Schwarzenberger has arranged various symbols, signs, text fragments, and found objects to create a superordinate whole. For K.U.SCH, ambivalence, association, and opposites belong fundamentally together. Things that may have nothing to do with each other at first glance actually need each other at the end of the day. This is idea behind the Gesamtkunstwerk that K.U.SCH has always worked towards: The connection of art and life into one.
Rhythm, dynamics, and movements are constitutive characteristics of Renate Krätschmer’s drawings and objects. Her self-portraits, chaotically condensed pencil strokes, sometimes reduced to almost nothing more than a symbol, provide intimate insights. Other sheets show rhythmically active abbreviations of figures drawn with colored pencils or with a calligraphy brush, which the artist brought into the third dimension in a model in 2013. These “Rhythmic Gesticulation Abbreviations” show the abstract movements of dancers and are dramatically presented in a cube-shaped arrangement like on a theater stage, one behind another. Looking through the different layers, different perspectives emerge, spatial densifications here, open structures there.
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Short bios
Jenny Watson was born inMelbourne, Australia in 1951. She graduated in Painting and in Educational Sciences in Melbourne and exhibited her work for the first time in Australia in 1973. Her works have since been shown in over 100 solo exhibitions throughout Australia, Europe, India, New Zealand, and the USA. In 2017, she has already exhibited in Vienna, Sydney, and Reykjavík, Iceland. She was a guest at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Watson has also participated in several hundred group exhibitions and purchases in public and private galleries around the world. She currently divides her time between Brisbane, Australia and Europe.
K.U.SCH. (Founded by renate Krätschmer Und Jörg SCHwarzenberger in 1972; with Sito since 2006): Renate Krätschmer and Jörg Schwarzenberger were both born in 1943 in Vienna, where Jörg Schwarzenberger passed away in 2013. Sito Schwarzenberger was born in Graz in 1976. K.U.SCH live and work in Vienna and Krems.
The artist collective sees their interdisciplinary work as an expanded concept of art and as “conceptional Dadaism”. Their oeuvre encompasses object art, space installations, correspondences in open (natural) terrain, interventions in public (urban) space, films, texts, performative work in the direction of a Gesamtkunstwerk or a specifically developed form of processional theater and then of catwalk theater. Contact to Fluxus, Arte Povera, and the international Mail Art Movement since 1971. K.U.SCH became co-founders of Falter magazine in 1977.
Numerous scholarships and study programs brought K.U.SCH to Rome and Paliano in Italy, to Japan, the Netherlands, Uruguay, and multiple times to China after 2004.
The first procession theater was produced in 1988 for the first Danube Festival in Krems, and then again in 1992 for the Albertina Graphical Collection, among other occasions. K.U.SCH staged their Catwalk Theater on the Danube Island of Vienna in 1996, at Lengenfeld Castle in Lower Austrian in 2000, and in 2002 at the Kabelwerk in Vienna and the Klangraum Krems. Non-Stop-Shopping-Theater was performed in the Krems pedestrian zone in 2005, Funken Soundwhich in 2009 at the Wachtberg near Gars am Kamp, and Wetlands at the EVO-EVO exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus. In 2010, the FLEXATIV performance was created to accompany the Waber Retrospective and Companions exhibition at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, and numerous similar projects were performed in Berlin, Vienna, and Lower Austria.
Since 1970, K.U.SCH has shown their work in dozens of solo and group exhibitions in Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Taiwan, Berlin, Cracow, St. Pölten, Nanjing, Beijing, Tulln, and Krems; for example in the Neue Galerie of the Joanneum Museum in Graz, at the Vienna Secession, at the Nanjing Shenghua Arts Center, in the RCM Gallery of Nanjing in China, the Vienna Künstlerhause, and at ZEITKUNST N.Ö. in St. Pölten.
In 1995, K.U.SCH received the Lower Austrian Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fine Arts.
Presse Information
Exhibition of artwork by Toni Stegmayer and Krasimira Stikar
April 27 to June 3rd, 2017
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<<< download PDF |
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Mental Rotation
Toni Stegmayer
Sculptures
The exhibited stone sculptures by sculptor and video artist Toni Stegmayer, who resides in Kiefersfelden in Bavaria, look at the topics of perception, movement, openness, and static coherence. When observing the cubic works of the Mental Rotations series, characterized by clean incisions and irregular fractured surfaces, the desire to imagine the individual elements back in their original state immediately arises.
The sculptures of the second series on exhibit, Constellations, are a series of stone blocks and pillars that are re-organized for each exhibition situation, and that take over the gallery space in chaotically situated piles of symmetrically placed blocks and single pillars. With carefully set incisions and controlled breaks in the material, Stegmayer bends the massiveness of the stone cubes, seeming to bring them out of their static balance.
Both Krasimira Stikar and Toni Stegmayer work with a complex interplay of movements, statics, time, and space.
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Movement and Standstill
Krasimira Stikar
Drawings and installation
Krasimira Stikar, born 1980 in Bulgaria, finished her studies under Peter Kogler at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2005.
Here, Stikar exhibits works on paper that show us sequences of movements in a concrete-minimalist way akin to the image sequences of a short video animation, focusing on the themes of change versus stasis and inside versus outside in a geometrically minimal manner. Stikar also painted a temporary mural for the exhibition that cites US American artist Frank Stella’s series titled Shaped Canvases. The artist contours and accents the solid front wall of the gallery entrance using a linear vocabulary that adds to the wall segment and makes it rhythmical, setting it into motion and opening up the room.
Both Krasimira Stikar and Toni Stegmayer work with a complex interplay of movements, statics, time, and space.
Vernissage: Wednesday, April 26, 2017, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 am to 3 pm
Exhibition duration: April 27 to June 3rd, 2017
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Presse Information
Exhibition of artwork by Magnus Pöhacker and Anna Khodorkovskaya
March 9 to April 21, 2017
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Pressetext PDF-Datei |
STANDPUNKTE
Magnus Pöhacker
Sculptures
Magnus Pöhacker was born 1967 in Innsbruck. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1985 – 1991 in the Master Class of Sculpture led by Prof. Joannis Avramidis and graduated in 1991. He continued his studies in 1991/1992, going more in depth with Medal Making and Plastic Arts and beginning printmaking with the Master Class for Printmaking under Prof. Maximilian Melcher at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He has been a freelance sculptor and graphic designer since 1991.
His work centers on human bodies, subject to the passing of time, moving, changing, or stopping in the midst of a motion.
The exhibition Standpunkte reveals the narrative elements of sculpture. We find heads, torsos, and bodies laying down, sitting, standing, cowering, one-legged, proud,pushed down, and upright; we find round and edgy shapes, smooth and cracked, shapes made of concrete and metal. It is as if the artist has been on a long journey, near and far, and brought us sculpted photos to look at. Heads that turn out of their sockets and lift up over the earth; proud, calm heads. Figures that seem to hover in weightlessness, others that can barely rise, or not lift at all, and even others that seem to be stuck in their sockets, held fast by an unseen force.
Magnus Pöhacker is a quiet artist, but the titles of his works are communicative, such as Block-like Torso, Overextended Head, Small One-legged Person, Head Stalk, and more. Each sculpture has, depending on the lighting and the angle, an almost endless wealth of facets and appearances, telling us stories of emotions, friendships, passions, and the archaic rhythms of life and death that we are all subject to.
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Wächter 2012/2014, Bronze 3/3, H 207 cm |
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Kleiner gestürzter Falke, 2010 Bronze 3/3, H 30 cm |
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Starke Bewegung, 2000, |
OVERFLOW
Anna Khodorkovskaya
Paintings
Anna Khodorkovskaya
Born 1985
Lives und works in Vienna
2011 –... Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2009 – 2010 The Institute of Contemporary Art Moscow
2003 – 2008 Moscow State University of Printing Arts
People try to get rid of the annoying “trash-things” of everyday reality. Advertising flyers, cheap magazines, used packaging and old worthless goods. Being produced by society itself, they are rather considered as physical and visual garbage. They are wanted to be thrown away and forgotten. But the junk of everyday life can also contain something worthwhile. Let us look closer at these fragments. What are they besides of what they say. One would assume that art and traces of the everyday were belonging to different orders, to different practices, both connected by a distinction that they have in common. Reflecting the everyday does not make art a part of it, and including arts in the everyday does not make it to an artistic practice. Yet, this gap between arts and the everyday is the starting point for these works. Reduction of the semantic function of the materials that are supposed to serve as an information media gives a possibility to focus attention on their visual and emotional components. Sometimes kept recognizable, and sometimes developed to an absolutely abstract compositions these images perform language of our daily aesthetics and dissolve the difference between arts and the everyday for the sake of a neither-nor, for the horizon of a moment of neutrality that is depending on the in-between of the elements it is constituted by and yet distinguished from what it is made out of.
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Untitled, aus der Serie Bruchstücke, 2016, 70 × 110 cm |
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Untitled, aus der Serie Bruchstücke, 2016, 70 × 110 cm |
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Untitled, aus der Serie Bruchstücke, 2016, 70 × 110 cm |
Vernissage: Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: March 9 to April 21, 2017
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Presse Information
Exhibition of artwork by Judith Saupper
Jan. 19, 2017 - Mar. 04, 2017
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Pressetext PDF-Datei (160kB) |
Judith Saupper
möglichkeit erinnerung
1975 BORN IN FELDKIRCH VORARLBERG, AT
2004 DIPLOM DEGREE BÜHNEN-& FILMGESTALTUNG UNIVERSITÄT FÜR ANGEWANDTE KUNST VIENNA, AT
LIVES AND WORKS IN VIENNA AND NIEDERÖSTERREICH, AT
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Zeitraffersternbild #4(Al Kaphrah) |
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strahler 7/2256 45 x 30cm, digitaldruck auf Dibond, 2016 |
Presse Information
Exhibition of artwork by Joachim Hoffmann and Florian Raditsch
Dec. 1, 2016 - Jan. 14, 2017
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Pressetext PDF-Datei (160kB) |
lichtungen
Joachim Hoffmann
Sculptures
Born 1961 in Trier, Germany.
1983–87 Studied sculpture in Vienna
Joachim Hoffmann’s art is made in an open creative process that allows rough ideas to develop into a shape. In the beginning, there is an intuitive awareness of the shape, but the actual result remains open until the very end. This has an especially strong effect on his smooth, aesthetically curving sculptures made of synthetic resin. The sculptures can be reworked, or in extreme cases even discarded.
Another important aspect of Joachim Hoffmann’s oeuvre is his experimentation with the limits of materials, in particular with in his numerous drillings through machined stone. All of his sculptures are characterized by an underlying dynamic of movement and countermovement. The exact form of the sculpture is hard to nail down, with each perspective revealing a different surface direction. The viewer is asked to let go, to question their newly won impressions and to allow new impressions to take over.
As the artist says: “The procedural aspect of art is what fascinates me, and how it is a paradox to embody such aspects in a hard material like stone.”
Joachim Hoffmann lives and works in Ottenthal, Lower Austria and Vienna.
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turnaround 8, Acrylharz |
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transit 2, 2011, Krastaler Marmor, 48 x 22 x 22 cm |
DEFINITION BEYOND NOW
Florian Raditsch
Drawings
1987 Born in Fresno, California
2002 – 2004 Fresno City College Art Department in Fresno, California
2006 – present Santa Fe University of Art and Design in Santa Fe, New Mexico
2009 – 2015 University of Applied Arts Vienna – Fine Arts, Photography (Prof. Gabriele Rothemann), Painting (Prof. Judith Eisler)
Florian Raditsch’s work presents objects that have been intentionally removed from their original environment, their context, and their place. They are exhibited in a reduced, neutral surrounding that emphasizes their shape, movement, and physicality. The intention of this alienation is to alter the previously inherent meaning of the object on view. Although they are initially figural, these reconstructed forms only remain so at first glance, quickly allowing a field of tiny lines and other fine structures to emerge, imbuing the objects with great physical plasticity and thus transcending the two-dimensionality of the medium in which they are created.
The artist mainly uses charcoal on hand-colored paper for his work. This media is course and clumsy, and its choice is in contradiction to the technical finesse with which the author works. He uses the charcoal in a new and unconventional way, by building up tiny linear structures.
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Oenothera, 2016, Kohle und Tusche auf handgefärbtem Papier, 61,5 x 44,5 cm |
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Die Schläfe, 2016, Kohle auf Papier, 96 x 68 cm |
Vernissage: Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Silvie Aigner will speak on the exhibition.
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: Dec. 1, 2016 - Jan. 14, 2017
Wir freuen uns auf Ihren Besuch und ersuchen herzlich um Ankündigung/ Berichterstattung!
Informationen: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Pressefotos: Zur freien Verwendung ausschließlich im direkten Zusammenhang mit der Berichterstattung über die Ausstellungen
Press Release
Laura J. Padgett Exhibition
October 15 to November 26, 2016
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Presse release, PDF (160 kB) |
Many Told Tales
Laura J. Padgett
Photography
Laura J. Padgett
born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Education and Teaching Positions
2015 Rankin Visiting Scholar, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
2010- present Lecturer in Photography and Art History at the Hochschule RheinMain, Wiesbaden
2003-2007 Lecturer in Photography, Film, and Art Theory at the Art and Design University, Offenbach am Main
2005 Lecturer in analog and digital Film Editing and Film History, Paderborn University
2001/2002 Lecturer in Art Criticism and Theory at the Art Academy of Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz
since 2000 Contributing Editor of the Film Journal Frauen und Film
1994-99 Lecturer in Photography at the Bauhaus University, Weimar
1994 Masters in Art History and Aesthetics, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt
1990-92 Lecturer in Photography and Art Theory at the Art and Design University, Offenbach am Main
1983-85 Film- und Photography Studies with Peter Kubelka and Herbert Schwöbel at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main
1976-80 Painting Studies at Pratt Institute of Art and Design (BFA), Brooklyn, New York
Laura J. Padgett's work explores unoccupied spaces, both real and theoretical, to reveal truths that are often overlooked. Like her subject, her work itself occupies the spaces between photographic storytelling and installation, between language and image, between history and current affairs. While she uses photographic media the results are always more than photographic objects.
Since the nineties Padgett has produced a wide-ranging body of work, adopting various genres such as architectural photography, still life and urban street photography while exploring our ideas of communal and cultural identity.
Laura J. Padgett's work is often DISPLAYED in public spaces and plays with scale, material and the way we interpret images and their relation to history. The breadth of her work demonstrates an ability to move fluidly between genres, based on her background in painting, art history and architecture.
Born in Cambridge, USA, Laura J. Padgett studied painting, film and photography at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York. Her conceptual approach to her projects stems from this background. Her further studies in film and art history, with Peter Kubelka at the Städelschule and at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, respectively, broadened her approach.
Laura J. Padgett exhibits internationally, and her work can be found in state and corporate collections such as the DZ-Bank ArtCollection, Frankfurt am Main. Her work is in the permanent collections of Museo Museion, Bolzano, Museum Wiesbaden and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. She is the 2017 recipient of the Marielies-Hess-Art Award.
Vernissage: Wednesday, October 19,2016, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Petra Noll – Hammerstiel will talk at the exhibition
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Wien
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m.,
Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: October 15 to November 26, 2016
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Press Release
Judith.P.Fischer and Johann Feilacher Exhibitions
September7 to October 15, 2016
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Presse release, PDF (160 kB) |
Hoch.STAPELEI
Judith.P.Fischer
Drawings and Objects
Born in Linz, Upper Austria.
Lives and works in Vienna and Enzersdorf an der Fischa, Lower Austria.
Education
Diploma at the Neusprachlichen Gymnasium in Bruck an der Leitha, Lower Austria
Studied Art History at the University of Vienna
Studied Sculpture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (Master Class of Prof. Wander Bertoni)
Studied Vocal Training, Lied, and Oratorio at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
1990 Graduated in Vocal Training and in Lied and Oratorio with Honors
1991 Graduated in Sculpture
Judith. P. Fischer is well known in art world for her sculptures and installations from nature inspired objects, which are made of artificial materials like latex, silicon and elastomer. Her fascination with human body, its parts and their transformations are visible in her earlier works in the 1990’s. Particularly expressive are hybrid objects where human, animal and/or vegetal are composed in a way they may remind on Hieronymus Bosch’s imagination. In her artworks the interaction between hard and soft elements plays an important role. In sculptures soft artificial materials are combined with plaster or steel, however hard and soft materials are shaped to carry the opposite sensation, i.e. silicon is pointy and looks sharp while steel is curved in irregular loops for example. Organic shapes often evolve towards crystalline but never lose their origin completely. They look like frozen in a transitory stage before they would reach total petrifaction and through connection of the alive and not alive this state acts slightly uncanny but not threatening, known and unknown at the same time, a little bit of “das Unheimliche”. Especially strong is the dichotomy of surface and the interior, of the visible and the premonition. The yellow Evolas may remind on a huge lemon-like body, but they could be eggs of a strange creature and the grey Cascade is springing out of the wall through a grate as it would be invading the room through a ventilation shaft. On the other hand the piled up pillows on the drawing look blown up, soft and weightless at the same time. They are like a pillar suspended in the air or because of the symmetric composition binding together the world above and below. Another step forward in this direction is the drawing “this is not a rabbit” in which are the dark and the light side clearly divided, the pillows are not mirror images but are perfectly complementary to each other. But still, even if the silhouette reminds on rabbit while the title assures the opposite, the buttons could be eyes of some scary deep-sea fish.(Vasjy Nagy)
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Judith.P.Fischer, Rapsgelb II, 2016, |
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Judith.P.Fischer, hochSTAPELEI II (empilable II), 2016 |
Eigentlichkeiten
Johann Feilacher
Sculptures
Johann Feilacher
Born 1954 in Villach, Carinthia
Studied medicine in Graz, Styria
Works as sculpturer since 1980
Since 2006 artistic director of Museum Gugging, Lower Austria
2011 Nomination as Professor
When today one hears someone mentioning the name of Johann Feilacher wooden sculptures of monumental dimensions are the first thing that comes to one's mind. Many of them have been executed as artworks for public spaces or parks in Austria and abroad. Huge trees, huge trunks offer to the artist a special behaviour towards wood as material, and he takes material seriously in elemental way, which anticipates already the title of two books about his work – Hölzer (Pieces of Wood). Working the wood with a chainsaw leaves rough texture on the surface and exposes the inner structure of fibres and the density, hardness. The next step is leaving some of the artworks to change under atmospheric conditions and insects, resulting in changing colour, texture and structure of wood. In some extreme cases even complete decay and therefore disappearance of the sculpture is planned, which shows a conceptualist approach to the artwork. Sometimes the “pieces of wood” are artificially coloured. Sometimes they get a red coating but they are more often burnt with a welding torch that allows creating black stains with high precision.
The hand of the artist is decisive and precise, but rough, almost violent. The sculptures are cultivated but they look somehow primitive. One group has been inspired by oceanic masks, the other one by shields and then another one by Stone Age axes. Their primordial qualities combine the basic elements and tell stories of Earth, time and life. They carry the knowledge, beauty and mystery of a distant space and time like it should be preserved for generations to come and they show in simple figures contemporary life. At first sight the monumentality of the sculptures gives the impression of sublimity but from up close they are really warm and intimate.(Vasj Nagy)
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Johann Feilacher, Pfeil 2, 2016 |
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Johann Feilacher, Citta, 2006 |
Vernissage: Wednesday, September 7,2016, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Nina Schedlmayer will talk at the exhibition
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Wien
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m.,
Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: September 7 to October 15, 2016
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Press Release
Gottfried Ecker and Robert Bodnar Exhibitions
April 7 to May 14, 2016
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Presse release, PDF (210 kB) |
Poussins Bühne
Gottfried Ecker
Objects, paintings and drawings
Artist Gottfried Ecker lives in Vienna and has been making paintings and sculptures for quite some time now.
Like Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Markus Lüpertz before him, Gottfried Ecker is fascinated by Nicolas Poussin, one of the most important painters of the French Baroque. Poussin developed figural compositions using wax models that he arranged inside a peepshow box in order to visualize spatial constellations, size ratios, buildings, and perspectives.
With the sculpture titled Poussins Bühne (Poussin’s Stage), Ecker has created a modified dollhouse kitchen, a similar situation built up using constellations of figures and objects, which he goes on to paint in the second step. The etchings and watercolors in the Kopfschleuder (Head Shooter) series are the results of the spatial and staged situations that have been typical of Ecker’s work since 2002.
The fact that Ecker has studied Poussin’s color palate in detail can be seen in a hands-on sculpture that lets visitors create their own personal color combinations. Poussin’s mythological, allegorical, and religious themes reappear in Ecker’s ceramic work Gänse (Geese) and the wooden sculptures of the Sarkophage (Sarcophagi) series, in reference to Poussin’s numerous drawings of antique sarcophagi and reliefs. Multi-part canvas wall installations in different sizes and wooden sculptures play with Poussin’s lighting moods.
Ecker’s multifaceted art pieces create highly exciting image spaces. He breaks Poussin’s idealized landscapes and heroic scenes down to a poetic and sometimes also humorous and playful level, putting the academically and formally influenced French painter’s work into a whole new light.
Hartwig Knack
As part of the exhibition series, we present
Okkultationen und Transits
Robert Bodnar
Photography and video are the preferred media of Robert Bodnar, who studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Eva Schlegel, Matthias Herrmann, and Harun Farocki. Born in Prague, Bodnar’s interest in celestial mechanics has been growing for about four years now. His work is the result of an intense fascination with astronomical phenomena, physical and scientific theories, and the observation of current research activities in the field.
Bodnar’s art reflects the media, continually testing the limits of film and photography, striving to add new levels to the genre. Aware that sunlight is the primary source of photography, the thing that makes it possible, and fascinated by the overlapping of celestial bodies, he made a photo series documenting the moment of the solar eclipse of the Earth’s northern hemisphere in 2015.
In his new work, titled Himmelsgewölbe (Sky Domes), recording celestial phenomena is once again the focus. Bodnar has developed a polar coordinate system analogous to scientific astronomical processes and uses it to draw the paths of suns. It almost appears as if the artist is trying to transform the unimaginable energy of planetary motion and solar systems from their original chaotic state into precise artistic order.
Hartwig Knack
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Robert Bodnar, Okkultation (Fig. 1) – Studie, 2015 |
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 7 to 9 p.m.
Hartwig Knack will speak at the exhibition.
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Wien
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: April 7 to May 14, 2016
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Press release
Florian Schaumberger and Virginie Bailly Exhibitions
February 25 to April 2, 2016
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Press release PDF (134 kB) |
EISENTLICH
Florian Schaumberger
Sculptures
Florian Schaumberger
Geb. 1962 in Wien
1980-84 Höhere Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt
1984-1992 Studium der Bildhauerei an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien bei Prof. Avramidis
Lebt und arbeitet im Waldviertel
Florian Schaumberger, geb. 1962, zählt zu den wenigen Bildhauern, die in der Tradition der österreichischen Eisen- und Stahlplastik stehen. Er studierte an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien bei Joannis Avramidis.
Der gebürtige Wiener lebt und arbeitet mittlerweile ausschließlich im niederösterreichischen Waldviertel, wo das Leben inmitten der nahezu unberührten Thayalandschaft und die ganz persönliche Sorge um die Erhaltung eines intakten, wertvollen Naturraumes seine Arbeit thematisch stark beeinflussen. Kunst als Reaktion auf die Wunden, die der Mensch schlägt, auf Verletzungen, auf grausame Zerstörung und auf das oftmals unfassbare Geschehen unserer Zeit.
Schaumberger arbeitet hauptsächlich mit Eisenplatten, die er in seiner Schmiede eigenhändig biegt, verformt und verschweißt. Eine Serie von großformatigen „Tafelbildern“ entstand, ebenso wie Stelen und eine Reihe von Kleinplastiken.
Mit seinen Großplastiken „Euro 2000“ (Oesterreichischen Nationalbank, Druckzentrum, Wien 9) und dem „Denkmal der Exekutive“, Heldenplatz, Wien 1) oder „Einhorn“ (Immuno -Baxter, Wien 22) schuf der Künstler bekannte Landmarks.
„Die aus einem einheitlich geformten Grundmaterial zusammengefügten Objekte hatten lange Zeit eine gewisse Nähe zur Architektur. Dies hat sich nun zugunsten vegetabiler Formen in den Arbeiten der letzten Jahre verändert. Deren Formensprache ist geprägt vom Leben auf dem Land und von der Wahrnehmung seiner Umgebung.“ (Silvie Aigner)
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Florian Schaumberger, Tafelbild „battered 4“ |
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Florian Schaumberger, Fliehendes Pferd, 2001 |
In der Ausstellungsreihe zeigen wir
Pareidolie
Virginie Bailly
painting
Virginie Bailly
1976 geboren in Brüssel
1993–1997 Studium der Malerei an der Ecole des arts d’Anderlecht
1998 Studium an der Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Montpellier (FR)
1995-1999 Studium der Malerei an der Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussels
2000–03 Postgraduales Studium am Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen
Lebt und arbeitet in Brüssel
Belgian artist Virginie Bailly lives and works in a sparsely populated suburb of Brussels, where the potentials for the urbanized landscape are still open and uncertain. The area bears the fitting name of “petit île” and supplies perfect fuel for her already quite extensive multidisciplinary oeuvre.
In her Vide-Plein series, Bailly analyzes paintings almost anatomically. She slices photos of ruins, half-demolished houses, and deserted sites on her cutting table. In her own very unique way, she dissects the structure of the photo, leaving only the essential in its place. Bailly hunts down not only the pure essence of the image with her expressive brushstrokes, she also explores the very fundaments of painting itself: color, composition, applying paint, and gesture.
In addition to the brushstrokes, which represent a basic building block, gesture is a very important aspect.
It’s gesture that picks up on all facets of the foundation of Bailly’s relentless precision, becoming like the filtered leftovers of heterogeneous perception. (Floris Dehantschutter)
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Interpuncties P12 (Le Mont Analogue), 2015 |
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Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, February 24, 2016, 7 to 9 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Albertina Wien speaks about Florian Schaumberger's work
Nina Schedlmayer, art critic speaks about Virginie Bailly's work
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: February 25 to April 2, 2016
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions.
Press information
Alfred Czerny and Petra Schweifer Exhibitions
January 21 to February 20, 2016
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Press Release PDF (134 kB) |
Rhythmus der Formen
Alfred Czerny
Sculpture and sketches
Alfred Czerny
Born on March 26, 1934 in Vienna.
1954 Diploma from the Technological Trade Museum in Mechanical Engineering in Vienna
1954-1959 Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Hans Andre and Fritz Wotruba
Member of the Vienna Secession
Died on September 7, 2013.
Prizes and Awards:
1957 School of Masters Award
1961 Advancement Grant by the City of Vienna and the Vienna Art Fund of the Central Savings Bank
2004 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st Class
Alfred Czerny belonged to the great generation of Wotruba pupils. Accepted into Wotruba’s master class in 1954, the great variability of Czerny’s work stands out, both in terms of content and form.
It can be seen in his figurative works as well as in his small abstract sculptures that the opposition and unity of different shapes, the rhythms of the dead and living and of nearness to nature and abstraction were very important to the artist.
This high level of rhythmic sensitivity becomes particularly apparent in the small sculptures of his later years, when he was no longer able to work on large stones.
This is where he gave free rein to the richness of his fantasy.
The sculptural exhibits are complemented by the sculptor’s sketches, which are not drafts for his sculptures but renewed attempts at grasping the plasticity of the human body. He shapes his nudes with great power, then sets them in contrast to indifferent geometric forms - here, too, can the incomparable rhythm of form be felt.
As part of the exhibition series, we present
Geheimes, Dunkles
Petra Schweifer
Painting
Petra Schweifer
born 1981 in Eisenstadt, Austria
2001 - 2006 Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
(Walter Obholzer, Erwin Bohatsch)
Lives and works in Vienna.
2016 City of Vienna Study Abroad Scholarship, Budapest
2012 Artist in Residence, Bucharest AiR, Bucharest
2011 Sojourn in Paris (drawing project "cartes postales à Graz-Reykjavìk-Warsawa")
2009 Styrian Study Abroad Scholarship, Iceland
2008 Burgenland Study Abroad Scholarship, Paliano-Rom
Petra Schweifer paints carefully and copiously. Her eyes collect impressions; quotes and phrases stick in her mind, whether read or heard. And this collection of thoughts and images must be processed through painting.
What we see opens a broad spectrum of possible interpretations for the viewer: mountains, hills, water, mythical creatures, figures, wounds, covered windows, or...? However, what is essential is that everything we see is not what we think we see.
Schweifer gives us clues through the titles: one never really looks up during the day or diving under and back up again or this is a façade, all of it.
And nevertheless, we still can't name what we see.
Schweifer isn't trying to actually transpose a landscape or an object onto the canvas. She draws from memory, allowing things she's read to mingle in, distorting, mocking, pointing, masking, exaggerating, and blending what is being portrayed.
Paintings emerge that we see as delicate and fine, or as rough and cruel. And these things lie very close together.
A Special Exhibition
Franz Fischer
The Forgotten Wotruba pupil
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Franz Fischer Photo Martin Seidenschwann |
Franz Fischer
Born 1920 in Moravian Neustadt, today Unicov, Czech Republic.
Studied at the Vereinigte Staatsschule in Berlin for two semesters.
1946 – 1953 Studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Fritz Wotruba
1949 Master School Award
Died on October 27, 1976 in Vienna.
Forty years after his death and 30 years after the last exhibition of his sculptures at Lockenhaus Castle, we are once again putting his sculptures and drawings on exhibit.
Fischer's formal language was that of a loner, hard to comprehend. Paul Meissner compared Fischer to Schönberg in 1971.
His method of applying plaster to an underlying frame that usually remains visible at the ends imbues his figures with a skeletal feel.
Fragments and pieces were just as important to him as the whole, allowing him to join archaic severity with fragile poetry.
The guiding theme of his work could be: Incomplete completeness.
Exhibition opening: Wednesday, January 20, 2016, 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.
Silvie Aigner will speak on the exhibition.
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: January 21 to February 20, 2016
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: Available for free use ONLY in direct connection to articles related to the exhibitions.
Press Release
LOOKING BACK / GOING FORWARD
November 28, 2015 to January 16, 2016
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Press release PDF (186 kB) |
In our third exhibition of 2015, we look back at our first quarter of existence as a gallery and invite you to look forward with us into 2016.
In addition to sculptures and art objects, we will also be showing sketches and photography.
The works of established artists are joined with new, young approaches.
Virginie Bailly, Robert Bodnar, Maria Bussmann, H.H.Capor, Alfred Czerny, Gottfried Ecker,
Johann Feilacher, Judith.P.Fischer, Stefan Glettler, Joachim Hoffmann, Rudolf Kedl, Talos Kedl,
Gabriele Kutschera, Julian Palacz, Giovanni Rindler, Dorota Sadovská, Florian Schaumberger,
Karl Vonmetz, Bruno Walpoth, Michael Ziegler
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Invitation |
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Joachim Hoffmann, turnaround 1, 2014 |
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Bruno Walpoth, Giuana |
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Judith.P.Fischer, Loops |
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Karl Vonmetz, Untitled, 2015 |
Exhibition Opening: Friday, November 27, 2015, 7 to 9 p.m.
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: November 28, 2015 to January 16, 2016
On Advent Saturdays:
take a BREAKfast
on Saturday Nov. 11, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, and Dec. 19, 2015 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Galerie Artmark | www.artmark-galerie.at | |
Hieke Kunsthandel | www.hieke-art.com | ||
Galerie Ulrike Hrobsky | www.hrobsky.at | ||
Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann | www.galerie-sunds.at |
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer,straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: Available for free use ONLY in direct connection to reporting on the exhibitions
Press Release
Exhibition of Karl Vonmetz and Stefan Glettler
Oktober 22 to November 21, 2015
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Press Release PDF (122 kB) |
Glanz und Illusion
Karl Vonmetz
Skulptures
Karl Vonmetz
Born 1950 in Merano
1965-69 Goldsmith apprenticeship in Merano
1974 Studied at the College of Applied Arts in Vienna
1979 Graduated in Metal Design
Karl Vonmetz is a steel sculptor. He studied Metal Design at the College of Applied Arts after having completed his apprenticeship as a goldsmith. The materials he primarily uses today are stainless steel, bronze, and copper. His meticulously shaped forms are almost as exact as it gets (his detailing involves tenths and even hundredths of a millimeter) and – this is where the goldsmith in him becomes apparent – are based upon fundamental geometric figures. Squares, rectangles, cylinders, and often circles. All these shapes bear within themselves rich facets of symbolism. Let's take a look at the shape of a circle: halo, godliness, infinity, spirituality, and more. This is, of course, only one way of interpreting it. The works on display are all made of stainless steel. The colorful hues of the sculptures are awakened by a bath in chromic acid. The longer they are dipped, the more intense the colors become.
The concept of infinity has always been an important one for Vonmetz, extending, of course to the related topics of mental space and spheres of spirituality. (Hartwig Knack).
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Karl Vonmetz, Untitled, 2015 © Karl Vonmetz, Photographed by Martin Seidenschwann |
In the exhibition series, we bring you
tauweiß
Stefan Glettler
Painting
Stefan Glettler
Born 1980 in Graz, Styria.
2000-05 Studied Painting and Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
2005 Graduated under Walter Obholzer
Lives and works in Vienna and Styria.
Stefan Glettler studied Painting and Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
He collects impressions of the world and processes them through painting. He follows no strict rules; there are no rigid artistic processes. A work of art develops, growing through its own self, clearly continuing to refer to and to shape itself. This way of painting forces him to contemplate on his experiences, to always be ready to learn something new, to subject himself to continual testing and arrangement by criteria.
In his works – he makes various sculptures in addition to painting – the rough and the fine, the filigree and the brute lie close to one another. The haptic moment is at the forefront, because Stefan Glettler sees human beings as being defined by the things that surround them.
As he puts it: “With a certain degree of playfulness, humor, and even aggression, I try to work out a world for myself.”
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Stefan Glettler, Untitled, 2015 Tempera on canvas, 145 x 110 cm © Stefan Glettler, Photographed by Martin Seidenschwann |
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Hartwig Knack will speak at the exhibition.
Location: Grünangergasse 8, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12 to 6 p.m., Sat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: October 22 to November 21, 2015
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: Available for free use ONLY in direct connection to articles related to the exhibitions.
Press Information
Grand Opening of Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann
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Press Release PDF (155 kB) |
Vienna, an art city, has been enriched by another place to meet: Galerie Straihammer und Seidenschwann opens its doors at Grünangergasse 8 on Sept. 17, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. with two exhibitions – right in the center of the old town in the charming and historic “Kipferlhaus”.
The opening exhibition presents
Kedl & Kedl
Figure and Nature
Sculptures by Rudolf and Talos Kedl
Two renowned Austrian sculptors. Artwork by Rudolf Kedl (1928-1991) and his son Talos (born 1967) can be seen for the first time together in an exhibition.
Rudolf Kedl, a student of Fritz Wotruba and two-time Austrian Ambassador to the Venice Biennale (1966 and 1976), co-founded the "Künstlergruppe Burgenland" in 1956 and became a Professor of Artistic Design at the Technical University of Graz in 1986. He was one of the most important sculptors of our time, and continually garnered inspiration for his stone and metal sculptures from the nature that surrounded him. His sculptural alphabet enables an abstraction and a regression to the figural.
Talos Kedl Talos Kedl learned the artistic techniques of metal and stonework in his father's workshop from 1981 to 1991. After studying business, he returned to artistic work in 1997. His works are made of pounded copper sheeting, welded together with copper thread.
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Rudolf Kedl, Cusco, 1988 Bronze, 45 x 45 x 24 cm © Martin Seidenschwann |
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Talos Kedl, Austria`s next Topmodel, 2012 Welded and patinated copper, 168 x 30 x 27 cm © Talos Kedl |
As part of the exhibition series, we present
Who First Falls Asleep, Wakes the Other.
Drawings by Michael Ziegler
Michael Ziegler was born 1960 in Wels and lives and works today in Innsbruck. Drawing has been the main focus of his creative oeuvre for many years. The motifs evolve slowly. The artist proceeds according to a careful plan, only to then dive into a frenzy of lines that brings the subconscious mind to the surface.
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Michael Ziegler, Mann am Kamin, 2004 Pencil on paper, 21 x 28 cm © Michael Ziegler |
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Prof. Angelica Bäumer will speak about the exhibitions.
Location: Grünangergasse 8/3, 1010 Vienna
Opening hours: Tues – Fri from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., Sat from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Exhibition duration: Sept. 10 to Oct. 17, 2015
We are looking forward to your visit and kindly request an R.S.V.P. or article!
For more information: Roswitha Straihammer, straihammer@galerie-sunds.at
Press photos: Available for free use ONLY in direct connection to articles on the exhibitions.