Zenita Komad

1980 born in Klagenfurt, Austria
1996 University of Applied Arts, Master Class Japelj - Stage Design/Graphics, Vienna
1998 Academy of Fine Arts, Master Class Graf - Mixed Media, Vienna
2004/2005 Scholarship Internationales Künstlerhaus, Villa Concordia, Bamberg
2007 MAK Schindler Scholarship, Mackey House, Los Angeles

Zenita Komad. Be light for the world

Be Light for the World", Zenita Komad's central installation at Galerie Gölles, captures the epiphanic light of the sun from the sky in the four corners of the courtyard of the renowned exhibition house in eastern Styria and sends its rays through the gallery walls. These, in turn, lead to various rooms within the space and thus mark, on a purely formal level, further different work phases of the internationally and particularly successful young artist (born 1980). Parallel to the selection from various cycles of works realised in a wide variety of clearly disparate media (collage, drawing, sand sculpture, material image and spatial installation), Zenita Komad has invited six other artists to participate in the exhibition with existing or newly created works by exploring the theme of light. Extended Universe II is the artist's term for the cosmos she has created to transcend the narrow confines of the artistic self and include the works of other colleagues dedicated to a common theme. The roles of the artist and the curator are deliberately not brought into focus, as it is not the ego but the theme that should be in the foreground.

Limited to a format of 150×110 cm, her panel paintings are full of life - consisting of items of clothing, letters of the alphabet and passages of text. Her even more playful and combined approach to the history of art, gender and writing actually remains the only bridge to the resulting bricolage works (P. Gorsen), which are packed with triple and even more potency - only to be flushed out again by an almost hetairistically suggestive strategy of exposure. Those who think they are secure in their interpretive ability had better look again. From Man Ray's famous back of a naked female figure, a clothed and pregnant Mrs Ray is supposed to emerge. But rays are also rays that do not transfer the narcissism of that very cult icon into the present, but rather extend the half-lives of this other kind of ray by light years. Whatever it may be, Zenita Komad does not fail to find in it and in so many other areas of thought the infinite possibilities to be drawn from the wealth of recorded thought, to be broken down into parts and reassembled into a new whole. Light, in any case, is inseparable from radiation. This element is peculiar to Zenita Komad's art. Her determined move to leave the system of art as it is commonly perceived, or rather to expand it, may cause some viewers to waver. The determination of the call, however, which she affirms in the title of this exhibition, leaves her behind, in the midst of the shadow realm - the exact opposite of which is in fact an essential part of her appeal.

Text extract Johannes Rauchenberger

Be light for the world

Installation, Gallery Gölles, 2012

le chaim !

2012, Edition 3, Wax, Wicks

Woman ray

2009, sewn canvas, polystyrene granulate, latex paint, 240 x 130 x 30 cm

Ausstellungen

EINZELAUSSTELLUNGEN Auswahl

2024 Die Waffen nieder! KULTUM Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz
Nie wieder Krieg! MMKK Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten
2018 8x10^9=1, MMKK Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten
2017 Kunst ist ein Arzt. Der Künstler und der Kabbalist - Galerie der DG, München, Deutschland
2015 Wir - Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Österreich
2014 Kill the Routine, Galerie Zimmermann/Kratochwill
2013 Time to change the Record. Galerie Krinzinger, Wien
Art Genève, Solo Stand Performance. (The Essential Collection), Genf
2012 Von a bis z und wieder zurück. Expo Chicago (Bourouina Gallery), Chicago
Zenita Komad. Art Gwangju (Galerie Krinzinger), Gwangju
ICH LIEBE GOTT. Minoritenkloster, Graz
Sei Licht für die Welt. Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld
2011 Spiritualität ist nicht Shopping, Jüdisches Museum Wien
2010 Bellevue, Loft 19 c/o Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris
Ewig bin ich dein Ja, The Loft, Mumbai, Indien
2009 CIGE, Internationale Einzelausstellungen, Peking, China

GRUPPENAUSSTELLUNGEN Auswahl
2015 Tales of 2 Cities, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Österreich
Zenita Komad | Deborah Sengl | Gabi Trinkaus, Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld
2014 Tales of 2 Cities, MMOMA, Moskau, Russland
2013 20X20, Galerie Freihausgasse, Villach, Österreich
Textual, Das Loft in Lower Parel, Mumbai, Indien
Biennale Giovani Monza, Serrone della Villa Reale, Monza, Italien
2011 Statements der Sammlung Albertina, Albertina Contemporary
extended Universe I., The Essential Collection, Zürich
Fünf Räume, Österreichisches Kulturforum, New York
2010 Ib Betwweb, Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst von Montenegro, Podgorica
2009 CELLA , Complesso Monumentale di San Michele a Ripa, Rom
Trickle-down, Korjaamo Galerie, Helsinki