OUR TOP FIVE FEMALE ARTISTS OF VIENNA CONTEMPORARY
September usually tends to be rather gloomy, grey, and full of rain in Vienna. So, to prevent a serious case of autumn blues, we visited Vienna Contemporary, the city’s annual art fair, which took place until yesterday at the former cattle hall “Marx Halle”. And although the variety of attending galleries and artists felt like an all-you-can-eat buffet but with, you know, art, after browsing through the fairs’ catalogue, we still felt that there continuous to be a gap that needs to be closed in the industry and even more space to be made for all the female power that the art world has to offer. Creating that space right here, we have put together a list of our top five female artists presenting at VC:
Brigitte Kowanz
Vienna’s flagship when it comes to art traders, Galerie Krinzinger showed one of Austria’s few internationally renowned female artists, Brigitte Kowanz. Her light installations follow a bold design aesthetic and can be found around the globe – at this fair, Kowanz showed a very recent piece she finished after preparing this year’s Austrian Pavillion at Biennale di Venzia.
Theresa Eipeldauer
32-year-old Theresa Eipeldauer, represented by Galerie Krobath, caught our eye with her very graphic yet extremely aesthetic approach to art – at Vienna Contemporary, six of her geometric pastel dreams have been showcased, providing a much needed alternative to the grey skies outside.
Maria Anwander
Bregenz born and now Berlin based Maria Anwander took care of our need for instagramable art at Galerie Lisi Hämmerle space. Together with Ruben Aubrecht she produced pieces that ironically yet frankly reflect absurdities of our time – such as “Likes and Comments”, “Image Courtesy” (2017) or untitled installation 2012 “Just another work of art which will not go down in history”, which could be interpreted as a critical statement towards the mechanisms of contemporary art business or just be taken for what it is – just another work of art.
Alina Birkner
Alina Birkner from Munich was represented by Romanian Jecza gallery. Her mesmerizing pieces achieve to exude calmness despite her preferred use of neon colors. She already established a very cohesive style and we are curious where her ambition will get her.
Anahita Razmi
Finally, there is Hamburg born Anahita Razmi, who studied in Stuttgart as well as New York and already showed at Venice Biennale and some renowned international museums. Despite living a nomad’s life and travelling the world, she chose Berlin to be the center of her creative world, having her studio in Kreuzberg. Razmis’ art can be seen in a contemporary Iranian context – she questions the female role in (middle eastern) society with a tongue-in-cheek approach and plays with the theme of gender stereotypes. At Vienna Contemporary this intercultural female artist was represented by forward-thinking Dubai based gallery Carbon 12.
Header Image: Maria Anwander, via Instagram