CV — CHRISTINA GSCHWANTNER

Christina Gschwantner, geb. 1975 in Wien, studierte Malerei und Grafik an der Universität für angewandte Kunst.
Währenddessen mehrmonatige Aufenthalte in Griechenland, Mexiko und New York. Nach dem Ende ihres Studiums folgt eine einjährige Residency in Australien. Förderungsstipendien der Sussmann Stiftung und der Universität für angewandte Kunst. Seit 2003 als freischaffende Künstlerin tätig.

Born 1975, studied arts at the University of applied Arts Vienna. During her studies she did stays in Greece, Mexico and New York. Followed by a one-year residency in Australia. She received the scholarship of the Sussmannstiftung and of the University of applied Arts. Since then she is working as an independent artist, exhibiting internationally.

exhibitions/
2025 lille art up! contemporay art fair, ACID GALLERY, Lille, France
PORTRAITS, Yuan Art Museum, Peking, China
Affordable Art Fair, ACID GALLERY, Brussels, France
2024 #5 NEW AND ABSTRACT, Showroom Berlin, Germany
SHINSEGAE Gallery, Seoul, Korea
art vienna, Gallery Stross, Orangerie Schönbrunn
art at the park, Galerie Felix Hofer
con tem plate, Boutique Romana, Vienna
COLOR WITH SOUL, Yin Art Gallery, Taiwan
ART NESVRSTANI, Galerie D, Zagreb
2023 Le Jardin, Holon Art Gallery, Wels
CHAMBRES D’AMIS #7, Seliger Bespoke Furniture, Vienna
ART VIENNA, Stross Gallery, Orangerie Schönbrunn, Vienna
METROSPEKTIVE, konsum163, group show, Munich, Germany
Colour and Kin, 19 Karen Gallery, solo, Australia
2022 Emergent realities and the fabric of now VOL.2, Contemporary Art Chronicle
NOWADAYS EXHIBITION, Florence Contemporary Gallery
ART VIENNA, Galerie Ursula Stross, Orangerie Schönbrunn, Vienna
…AUCH BUNT?…prav tako barvita?, ecoart galerie, Palais Niederösterreich, Vienna
WARNING, Galerie Ursula Stross, Graz
2021 BIG CANVAS GROUP SHOW, 19 KAREN GALLERY, Australia
2020 Virtual Show, ART NUMBER 23, Athens
2019 PARALLEL VIENNA
ART AUSTRIA, Vienna
ART VIENNA, Hofburg Vienna
2017 BONBONIERE CARACTÈRE, Vienna
GALERIE LENDNINE, Graz
WESENSART, Gumpoldskirchen, Lower Austria
2016 FEDERSPATZEN ANDERSWO, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg
2015 ART AUSTRIA, Leopoldmuseum Vienna
2014 PAINTINGS, Galerie BH Melk
2013 GOOD VIBRATIONS, Kleine Galerie, Vienna
2012 DIALOGE, Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg
FEUERWIRKLICH, Galerie in der Poststelle Hirschbühl, Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg
2011 Jahresausstellung 2011, Kleine Galerie, Vienna
Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2010 EIGENARTIG, Landhausbrücke St. Pölten
FRÜHLINGSBOTEN, Kunsthandlung Christine Ernst, Vienna
2009 LEICHTSINN, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
Kunsthandlung Christine Ernst, Vienna
ROTATION, Galerie am Karmeltiermarkt, Vienna
2008 Medizinische Universität Laibach, Slowenia,
SALON FANTASTIQUE, Galerie Frenhofer, Berlin, Germany
Kunst für Menschen in Not, Museumszentrum Mistelbach SOMMERLOCH, Galerie Frenhofer, Berlin,
2007 GALERIE AM KARMELITERMARKT, Vienna KUNSTHANDEL CHRISTINE ERNST, Vienna
2006 WESENSPIEL, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2005 SINNESFREUDIG, Alte Schmiede/Schönberg am Kamp,
WINTER, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
GALERIE DÖRR, Marbach/Donau,
FABELHAFT, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
2004 GALERIE FIGL, St. Pölten
WINTERFARBEN, Galerie am Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
WUNDERSAM, Dominikanerkirche Krems

collections/
Fubon Art Foundation, Taiwan
Privatsammlung URBAN
Saatchi Art Collection

purchases/
2024 KUNSTANKAUF LAND NÖ
2021 KUNSTANKAUF DES LANDES NÖ
2018 MUSEUM OF LOWER AUSTRIA
2010 MUSEUM OF LOWER AUSTRIA
2006 LAND NIEDERÖSTERREICH
2004 MAGISTRAT OF KREMS

memberships/
Künstlerhaus Verein, IG Bildende Kunst

publications/
about the vanity of strokes, Christina Gschwantner
@konsum 163 - contemporary art gallery, 2023

all I want, Christina Gschwantner
text: Dr. Christiane Krejs, Vienna, 2021

RUNDLINGE, Christina Gschwantner
text: Dr. Christiane Krejs, Vienna, 2021

CHRISTINA GSCHWANTNER
text: Dr. Elisabeth Voggeneder, Vienna, 2007

Kunst am Bau/
2010: Mosaik,BildungsCampusNordbahnhof,
Campus Gerturde Fröhlich-Sandner, Kindergarten und Volkschule
Ernst-Melchior-Gasse 9, 1020 Wien

ABOUT//
In her work, artist Christina Gschwantner combines contrasting art movements such as Art Informel and Minimal Art. She succeeds in depicting and creating her very own view of the world. A world that, surprisingly, makes the viewer feel that it is a part of themselves. Her rhythmic scenarios seem strangely familiar and appear to rise up from deep within the storehouses of consciousness. They create a feeling of wellbeing and joy, but also an interested, almost philosophical thoughtfulness.

There are two different active principles in her entire oeuvre. The haptic-gestural- painterly (informel) and the formal-structural (Minimal Art). At the beginning of her artistic career, both components emerge sporadically from the pictures, but in the course of her creative periods, both principles become more concrete and sharper and appear to stand separately side by side and yet function as a unit. And that is unusual and fascinating, because this clear separation of the painterly and the formal leads to a structural, strict composition that allows the artist's free informal painting to shine all the more clearly. One is almost inclined to conclude that the matrix-like, fixed arrangement of her painting elements means that each element has to assert itself against the others in order to "appear" "representative" in the picture. We know from real life that this can lead to strange results. But we first have to understand what this means for the artist. Because the task of giving each element its proper place and meaning in a figurative sense requires painterly and gestural effort. And it is understandable that something quickly changes in such a structure when a component changes its "mood“. For this reason, her paintings are alive - when one is "finished", it is ultimately only a snapshot. The result is more than just a picture - it is actually a social structure - a relationship painting - in Christina Gschwantner's case usually a positive, even happy one.

Christina Gschwantner's intensive and long-term preoccupation with the "relationship matrix" theme has led to an increasingly focussed, reduced and high-contrast visual language. This becomes clear when looking at her work as a whole.
The artist herself divides her pictures into different cycles, which can be used to recognise her creative periods.

From the still figuratively illustrative dream creatures and things pictures, which exist both as individual creatures and in matrix form, she clearly focusses her formal language with the cycle of RUNDLINGE. Here the circle becomes the only formal element and comes to life through its varied design and the artist's congenial layering technique. For the first time, the matrix structure clearly comes to the fore and becomes an experimental surface in the painterly network of relationships and the tension between the significance of haptics and position. Everything figurative disappears, the reduction to the essentials, the essence of painting, namely the brushstroke and the color come to the fore and are varied with each new work, so that from polka to polka one is able to immerse oneself in a completely new world. Her brushstrokes develop more and more character and literally transform into abstract individuals with almost human features.

The artist's current paintings are characterised by free, wild brushstrokes and the impasto, sometimes thick application of paint. In both the individual paintings and the matrix works, you can sense how the individual strokes are literally fighting for their "place in the sun“. You can feel how the painter struggles to become the master of this endeavour of her own creations in a furious painting process. And she succeeds in doing so in an incomparably unique way from picture to picture. It is like testing social interaction. Small nuances such as the distance between the individual strokes or the angle of inclination, overlapping, structure and pattern, luminosity, rhythm ... create a completely new narrative each time.

Konsum163, 2023