CHRISTINA GSCHWANTNER

Christina Gschwantner (born in 1975) combines contrasting art movements such as Art Informel and Minimal Art. She succeeds in depicting and creating her very own view of the world. A world that, surprisingly, makes the viewer feel that it is a part of themselves. Her rhythmic scenarios seem strangely familiar and appear to rise up from deep within the storehouses of consciousness. They create a feeling of wellbeing and joy, but also an interested, almost philosophical thoughtfulness.
There are two different active principles in her entire oeuvre. The haptic-gestural painterly (informel) and the formal-structural (Minimal Art).

At the beginning of her artistic career, both components emerge sporadically from the pictures, but in the course of her creative periods, both principles become more concrete and sharper and appear to stand separately side by side and yet function as a unit. And that is unusual and fascinating, because this clear separation of the painterly and the formal leads to a structural, strict composition that allows the artist's free informal painting to shine all the more clearly. One is almost inclined to conclude that the matrix-like, fixed arrangement of her painting elements means that each element has to assert itself against the others in order to "appear" "representative" in the picture. We know from real life that this can lead to strange results. But we first have to understand what this means for the artist. Because the task of giving each element its proper place and meaning in a figurative sense requires painterly and gestural effort.And it is understandable that something quickly changes in such a structure when a component changes its "mood“. For this reason, her paintings are alive - when one is "finished", it is ultimately only a snapshot.

The result is more than just a picture - it is actually a social structure - a relationship painting - in Christina Gschwantner's case usually a positive, even happy one.
 

Exhibition

2024, Art Vienna, Artfair, Stross Gallery, Wien, Austria; SHINSEGAE Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Art at the park, Galerie Felix Höller, Artfair, Vienna contemplate, Boutique Romana, Wien, Austria; Color with soul, Yin Art Gallery, Sani, Taiwan; Infinity, Florence Contemporary Art Gallery, online; Art Nesvrstani, Galerie.D, Zagreb, Croatia;  2023, Color and Kin, solo, 19 Karen Gallery, Australia; Le jardin, group show, Holon Art Gallery, Wels, Austria; Chambres d'Amis, seliger, group show, Wien, Austria; Metrospektive, group show, Konsum163, Munich, Germany;  2022, Emergent realities and the fabric of now Vol 2, Contemporary Art Chronicle; Nowadays exhibition, Florence Contemporary Gallery, online; ART VIENNA, International Artfair; Auch  Bunt?...prav tako barvita?, solo, Ecoart Galerie, Palais Niederösterreich, Wien, Austria; Warning, group show, Gallery Ursula Stross, Graz, Austria; 2021, Big canvases, group show,  19 Karen Gallery, Australia; 2020, Art Number 23, virtual, Athens, Greece; 2019, PARALLEL VIENNA, ART AUSTRIA, Vienna, ART VIENNA, Hofburg Wien, Austria; 2017,Bonboniere Caractère,solo, Wien, Austria; Galerie Lendnine, Graz; Wesensart, group show, Lower Austria; 2016, Federspatzen Anderswo, solo, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg, Austria; 2015, ART AUSTRIA, Leopoldmuseum Wien, Austria;  2014, Paintings, solo, Galerie BH Melk, Austria; 2013, Good Vibrations, solo, Kleine Galerie, Wien, Austria; 2012, Dialoge, group show, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg, Austria; Feuerwirklich, solo, Galerie in der Poststelle Hirschbühl, Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg; 2011, Jahresausstellung 2011, Kleine Galerie, Wien, Austria