ART DIAGONALE
Kunstsymposium WELS / AUSTRIA
Artists 2018
LUISA VALENTINI Italy
Luisa Valentini started working in the 80’s, focusing on elements related to nature and its structures, as well as developing a substantial core of research and work around the symbolic meaning
attributed to these forms in different cultures. A constantobservation of natural elements allowed
to relate openly with the geometry,the construction in nature, al well as the mutation, the death
and the rebirth in the plant and animal world. There are no ideal forms, but rather experiences
that, incomparison with the object, give the observer the opportunity to experience a subtleand
profound emotion, played on fragility, lightness, movement and erotic charge.
SUSANNA NIEDERER Switzerland
The ellipse (from Greek „ekleipsis“, „eclipes“: lack, omission, emptiness) stands for void, for
nothingness. The nought is also the origin of everything to arise, from the naught everything
can grow - like from zero. Every possible constructed ellipse is therefore a contradiction in its
existence connoting „not being there“ and thus shows exactly this phenomena.
JUNKO SAKURAI Japan
The ellipse (from Greek „ekleipsis“, „eclipes“: lack, omission, emptiness) stands for void, for
nothingness. The nought is also the origin of everything to arise, from the naught everything
can grow - like from zero. Every possible constructed ellipse is therefore a contradiction in its
existence connoting „not being there“ and thus shows exactly this phenomena.
CARLOS SEBASTIA Spain
Having in mind Nietzsche’s idea of “the eternal return”, my artistic interest
revolves around the understanding of impermanence and the desire to
perpetuate existence. Assuming the continuous flow of change, my work
investigates on the role of forgetting has in life.
I am a multidisciplinary artist, who experiments constantly with a broad
variety of materials, techniques, and processes in apparent chaos. In my
practice, I am interested in exploring the repetition and the layering, showing
the processes of creative steps. I do this through transparency, which
acts as traces of human existence. These layers are sometimes; paper, light
or exposure times that I trace, copy, stack or erase, converting them in a
single element in which I continue working, taking it into an almost infinite
process.
JOHANN WIMMER Austria
Through the three symposia’s of the ART DIAGONALE, Austrians master of photography Johann
Wimmer, was guided in the name of water, especially by rivers and waterfalls. Beginning with
reflections (ART DIAGONALE I Traunkunst, 2016), Wimmer used mirroring similar to the water surface, to portrait the participating artists. The captivating waterfalls of Iceland officiated as an imposing representation of the elements (ART DIAGONALE II, Korpulfsstadir/Reykjavik 2017).
Returning to Wels, Wimmer asked the artists to dive into the Traun river (ART DIAGONALE III, 2018).
Johann Wimmer referred to the douse into the water as „transboundary liberating“, which was
rather challenging for certain artists.
OSI AUDU USA
My contemporary work is inspired by the abstract
geometric possibilities I see in African Art and culture. This way, my work is a formal and conceptual
dialogue between the historic and the contemporary.
JAKOB VEIGAR SIGURTHSSON Iceland
I want to push my paintings to the limits. It’s not only the Image that matter but also the
act of painting and the substance of the paint as a medium. It must be powerful and explode in the face of the viewer, like a natural disaster.
The painting state what I feel, what I observe from my surroundings, my experiences in
life, good and bad, expressed in a performative way on the canvas at same time it gives
the viewer full freedom to put his own experience into the picture.
The painting doesn’t have to look or feel good, only show what is at the moment of the
action. The boundaries must be stretched in a painterly way to acquire new taste, in the
search for something fresh, a crusade against aesthetic. I fight against every rule in order
to break free from the tradition and construct something new in a personal way.
Courage matters greatly in the act of painting, to trust the movements and decisions in
the exact moment of the action is crucial for the result. One must be confident in the performance of painting and in the idea that the painting has a life of its own.
ERICH SPINDLER Austria
The work of Erich Spindler deals with human beings as individuals and society
as a whole. Horizontal lines and networks function as transformed examples of
connections – social, chemical, organic, anorganic, physical and psychical connections. The line emerges from concentration, it forms itself, it can carry content.
Connections are existential, they enable us to live together.
DENIS VINGTDEUX France
My work deals always about my vision of our society. I use common and cheap material – often recycling material.
CHRISTINE BAUER Austria
My art covers the field of painting and sculpture and represents the effort to extend the meaning , the
concept, the topic of painting to create a new entity by combining painting and scuplture. The crossing of borders in art is an essential feature of manifesting my artist position. I am interested in new
impressions, interested in diving into foreign cultures ant the unknown . Changing the perpective is an
important part of my creative process.
LINDA STEINTHORSDOTTIR Iceland
The Icelandic artist Mag. Linda Björk Steinthórsdottir was born 1968 in Keflavik, studied in
Salzburg and is now living and working in Linz Austria
In Iceland we say „you can take a person out of Iceland, but you can´t take Iceland out of
a person“
The artwork of Linda is abstract and minimalistic. She works with a plaster technique and
uses acrylic colors with gel on canvas. In the change of light the structures in the pictures
becomes alive and are constantly changing. The colours and the texture, the ingredients
and the ideas reflected in her work – it all brings you to the white glaciers, the black sands,
the barren nature and the sometimes blood-red sky of iceland. Her paintings are a tribute
to Icelandic nature in all its variety and beauty During my stay at the symposium in Wels a
new development took place in my Artwork it became more three demensional. The canvas is movable, and through the light the Painting is constantly changing itself.
HERBERT EGGER Austria
As an artist, my focus is a sculptural approach, connecting
material aspects with process-oriented installations.
I am using the language of the material, linking abstract
and concrete ideas - an attempt to combine the specific
reality of the material with the images in my head.
