ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Christina Gschwantner studied painting and graphics at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she was awarded a grant from the Sussmann Foundation and the UAAV.
Gschwantner describes the subjects of her paintings as strange creatures, peculiar beings, and picturesque figures. Colorful and eye-catching, vibrant and lively, Gschwantner’s characters inhabit the picture plane, claiming their surroundings for themselves or gathering in orderly groups. Born equally of reality and fiction, these wondrous entities feel familiar and at the same time alien. Mouse queens and chameleons appear in Gschwantner’s work; an armchair transforms into an animal; a circular form grows into beetle, the beetle into a bird; a splash of paint becomes a pachyderm—That’s an elephant, right? No, it’s a giraffe.
With multiple shifts of perspective and refusal to be pinned down or defined, Gschwantner’s motifs explore gray zones. Situated on the fault line between fantasy and humor, Gschwantner’s work can at times appear naive—yet it is precisely here that her intrinsic seriousness lies. Gschwantner’s rigorous artistic methodology is based on a reconfiguration of form, a metamorphosis of the visible, a process of interpretation, and an approach of continual variation.
EDUCATION
2001 DIPLOMA mag.art.
1997 UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS, Vienna
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 H23, Linz
2019 PARALLEL VIENNA
2019 ART AUSTRIA, Vienna
2019 ART VIENNA, Hofburg Vienna
2017 BONBONIERE CARACTÈRE, Vienna
2017 GALERIE LENDNINE, Graz
2017 WESENSART, Gumpoldskirchen, Lower Austria
2016 FEDERSPATZEN ANDERSWO, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg
2015 ART AUSTRIA, Leopoldmuseum Vienna
2014 KLEINE MONSTER, GROSSE TIERE, NÖ ART, Langenzerdorf Museum
2014 PAINTINGS, Galerie BH Melk
2013 GOOD VIBRATIONS, Kleine Galerie, Vienna
2012 DIALOGE, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg
2012 FEUERWIRKLICH, Galerie in der Poststelle Hirschbühl, Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg
2011 Jahresausstellung 2011, Kleine Galerie, Vienna
2011 Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2010 EIGENARTIG, Landhausbrücke St. Pölten
2010 FRÜHLINGSBORTEN, Kunsthandlung Christine Ernst, Vienna
2009 LEICHTSINN, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2009 Kunsthandlung Christine Ernst, Vienna
2009 ROTATION, Galerie am Karmeltiermarkt, Vienna
2008 Medizinische Universität Laibach, Slowenia,
2008 SALON FANTASTIQUE, Galerie Frenhofer, Berlin, Germany
2008 Kunst für Menschen in Not, Museumszentrum Mistelbach
2008 SOMMERLOCH, Galerie Frenhofer, Berlin,
2007 GALERIE AM KARMELITERMARKT, Vienna
2007 KUNSTHANDEL CHRISTINE ERNST, Vienna
2006 WESENSPIEL, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2005 SINNESFREUDIG, Alte Schmiede/Schönberg am Kamp,
2005 WINTER, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2005 GALERIE DÖRR, Marbach/Donau,
2005 FABELHAFT, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2004 GALERIE FIGL, St. Pölten
2004 WINTERFARBEN, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2004 WUNDERSAM, Dominikanerkirche Krems
COLLECTIONS
2018 MUSEUM OF LOWER AUSTRIA
2010 MUSEUM OF LOWER AUSTRIA
2006 LAND NIEDERÖSTERREICH
2004 MAGISTRAT OF KREMS
PUBLICATIONS
CHRISTINA GSCHWANTNER, Dr. Elisabeth Voggeneder, Vienna, May 2007
ALL I WANT, Christina Gschwantner, Dr. Christiane Krejs, Vienna, January 2021
RUNDLINGE, Christina Gschwantner, Dr. Christiane Krejs, Vienna, January 2021