RONALD KODRITSCH | GABI TRINKAUS

GABI TRINKAUS

Born in Graz in 1966

1986 Hetzendorf School of Fashion

1991 University of Applied Arts, Master Class in Painting, Vienna

Her distinctive collages consist of snippets from glossy and lifestyle magazines, which she affixes in dense layers to cardboard or canvas or pins down with pins.

In the series “Flowers,” Gabi Trinkaus offers a contemporary reflection on the art-historical tradition of the still-life genre.

In particular, she has engaged with the opulent floral bouquets of the painter Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750). She was a member of the painters’ guild Confrérie Pictura in The Hague.

Upon closer inspection of the individual collage elements, one realizes that these compositions are anchored in the here and now. Not all the petals of these magnificent bouquets are what they seem; they consist of set pieces from our consumer society, of gold and glitter, of meat and vegetables, of insects, hair, and body parts.

RONALD  KODRITSCH

Born in 1970 in Leoben

1989–90: Studied art history in Vienna

1990–92: Master School of Painting

1992–97: Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

The spirits summoned by Kodritsch oscillate pictorially between an almost childlike innocence—reminiscent of the illustrations in Otfried Preußler’s 1966 classic children’s book *The Little Ghost*—and ominous, otherworldly beings whose behavior is left to the viewer’s imagination to interpret.

All the works, however, share the suggestion of a nocturnal scene, evoked by the color palette, which varies between bluish purple and near-total black.

Works from the extensive “Bastards” series and selected individual pieces and objects, such as the new aluminum sculpture “Branch with Ambitions,” which also functions as a coat rack, present an illustrious and poetic cross-section of his oeuvre.