JULIA BORNEFELD, JOHANNES WOHNSEIFER, SARAH BECHTER, PAUL THUILE, MAI-THU PERRET, ÉVA BODNÁR (in order of appearance) BRUNO GIRONCOLI, OSWALD OBERHUBER (cameos) Stefan Schmidt-Wulffen (curation)
Art must strike a balance between materiality and idea. The effort involved in negotiating this compromise becomes visible in the success of the work. Abstraction and figuration embody extremes: abstract painting relies entirely on the dynamics of materials, while figuration subjects them to the conventions of representation. In marketing, beauty has become routine. Since then, success has often taken a detour through what ‘good taste’ rejects.
Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen is an art theorist and curator. As director of the Kunstverein in Hamburg, he early on presented the key artists of the 1990s. As rector, he brought the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna to international prominence. He teaches art history and design theory at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
