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