Füge Demirok writes short poem-like inscriptions next to the works in her 2007 catalog. The third poem, placed next to an image of The Seal, reads, “Sealed, / From past eternity to eternity, / Can it be disregarded? / Not caring, not minding…” It doesn’t seem like the most ambitious request for attention on an […]

The Leopold Museum houses perhaps the most important collection of modern Austrian art in the world. It is, as much as it can be, the foremost representation of Austrian art. For example, the Leopold holds the largest Egon Schiele collection in the world and major works by Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokschka, Richard Gersti, Albin Egger-Lienz […]

The image Porn Cover-Ups is a reflection about what happens when you delete the human body performing the actual porn or sex acts and leave just a trace of what might have been or is: objects like socks or a ring, the setting with a sofa or a cheap interior. “In this way,” the Swedish […]

Creativity and art-making always have dry spells. Over the last few years, as Zhang Pengye left Harbin for Beijing, and Beijing for New York, his artistic experiments have been quite diverse, and the various periods of his work suggest that the more troubled he is, the more productive. I myself like the prints he made […]

In the delicately beautiful cinema of Don Van Vliet’s canvases you might encounter a deer or rooster or a face coming out of the skies. You might see a word disappear into a blur as it catches onto another word or a devil caught in the sea. Sometimes there are wolves devouring flesh and crosses […]

During a conversation with the director of the Austrian Museum of Modern Art, or MUMOK, in Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, we find out if one of the most prestigious art museums in Austria thinks its art is better defined by its place on the international stage or its place in the MQ. MUMOK – Larian Triers During […]

Born Friedrich Stowasser in 1928, the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser became the best-known Austrian contemporary artist by the end of the 20th century. The independent art museum KunsHausWien in Vienna’s third district has housed the museum of Hundertwasser’s work since its opening in 1991. Its flanking rooms alternate with exhibitions of international stature, perhaps gesturing that […]

For the last eight years, I have been working with sub-cultural phenomena as a theme with roots in my own experiences and engagements. I use portraiture as a method, often in more or less realistic, multi-layered painting, but I sometimes also employ photography, text and music in my work. I allow this theme to permeate […]

What conclusions can be made about placing the exhibition “Americans, Masterpieces of American Photography from 1940 until now” at the Kunsthalle Museum in the traditional heart of the Austrian capital? The staunchly raw view of America would instinctively seem ill displayed amongst the works of Schiele, Klimt and Die Blaue Reiter in the neighboring museums […]

I remember my first time online well. It was my first year living in the United States and an acquaintance who was ordered to keep me entertained for a couple of hours sat me in front of a library computer, opened a browser window for me and told me to look up something… anything? I […]