JAKOB GASTEIGER | VIKTORIA KÖRÖSI | ESTHER STOCKER

JAKOB GASTEIGER

Born in 1953 in Salzburg

1970–1974 University of Music and Performing Arts, Salzburg

1990 Faistauer Prize for Painting

2017 Lower Austria State Prize for Fine Arts

2021 Albertina Museum, Vienna

Jakob Gasteiger is considered a representative of Analytical Painting. In his works, he examines the parameters of painting and addresses, expands, and breaks through the boundaries of graphic art, painting, and sculpture.

Within this working process, Gasteiger does not use color as a vehicle for content or meaning, but rather as a material in and of itself.

The artist’s most extensive body of work consists of his mostly monochromatic paintings with relief-like structures, which are created by using a comb spatula to apply the paint to the canvas.

VIKTORIA KÖRÖSI

Born in 1977 in Budapest, Hungary.

Graduated from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, in 2004.

“The central idea that preoccupies me is the further development of traditional, two-dimensional oil painting. In my work, I explore the contrast between softness and hardness, as well as between flatness and plasticity.

My most recent works are described using the term ‘soft tension,’ as this best reflects their tactile aspects and technical creation.

The three-dimensional objects appear solid and  hard because  I use and stretch soft and flat materials. These forms reflect  the traces of the working process as well as the properties and characteristics of the materials used.”

ESTHER STOCKER

Born in 1974 in Silandro, Italy

1994 Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (Prof. Eva Schlegel)

1996 Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, Italy

1999 Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California

Esther Stocker’s work is based on fundamental geometric principles, yet her pieces exhibit disruptions and distortions. She develops these as systems of geometric signs and grids in black, white, and gray, extending them into the third dimension and thereby transforming space and architecture.

A central theme is the “representation of a functional system of the approximate, the vagueness of exact forms.” The built-in disruptions are often minimal and give rise to dynamic pictorial spaces that lose their supposed pattern of order.