Sepp Auer / Toni Schmale
13 May - 25 Jun 2016
SEPP AUER / TONI SCHMALE
13 May – 25 June 2016
SEPP AUER, born 1939 in Braunau, Upper Austria. Headed the ‘Meisterklasse’ of Sculpture 1994-97. Numerous public art projects. His works can be found in collections such as 21er Haus Wien; MAK Vienna; Albertina Vienna; Lentos, Linz; OÖ. Landesmuseum Linz; Generali Foundation Vienna/Salzburg.
An ongoing exploration of materiality and design possibilities – the artist comments ironically on modernism from a conceptual approach – is one of the main constants of Sepp Auer’s work. The quality of craftsmanship (he also has a solid training as locksmith) also plays a significant role.
His reluctance to give his works a title also clearly reflects the open dimension of his understanding of art. Allusions to various art movements such as minimal art or monochrome painting stake out his artistic ‘space’.His oeuvre also emphatically addresses the tension between image and sculpture. The “in your face” pieces (as the artist has described them himself) undermine and transform the static notion of sculpture. The unstable, provisional character is the defining aesthetic quality. Subverting artistic conventions of seeing is a further hallmark of Sepp Auer’s oeuvre and this is repeatedly accentuated by the inclusion of writing. Fusions, reversals, reflections are all part of his artistic play of deception.
(quoted from Carl Aigner)
Sepp Auer: “Toni Schmale selects similar materials, but conveys different ideas – an exciting dialogue.“
TONI SCHMALE, born 1980 in Hamburg, lives and works in Vienna. Studied performative art and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Monica Bonvicini. In 2011 he was awarded the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize and in 2013 the Prize of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Whether performances, drawings, animations, videos, interventions in public space or significant dysfunctional sculptures – Toni Schmale’s works are profoundly subtle studies that formulate a radical criticism of the existing social power structures with their stereotypical constructions of gender and narratives.
They are accompanied by ironic over-drawings that wittingly subvert being clearly classified. Fitness machines, torture instruments, sex toys are the transitional objects of desire – sculptural projection surfaces and transformers. By identifying oneself with positions, stances, attitudes without reference to clichéd role images it is possible to break through boundaries. The imaginary body uninhibitedly deploys its power: object/subject of desire, adversary or companion, SHE / HE / IT, top or bottom – in fantasy nothing loses control. The boundaries can be freely transformed, and so it is just the authority of the super-ego that must still be kept at bay.
(quoted from Christin Lahr, ngbk Berlin, 2015)
Toni Schmale: “sepp auer has humor.“
13 May – 25 June 2016
SEPP AUER, born 1939 in Braunau, Upper Austria. Headed the ‘Meisterklasse’ of Sculpture 1994-97. Numerous public art projects. His works can be found in collections such as 21er Haus Wien; MAK Vienna; Albertina Vienna; Lentos, Linz; OÖ. Landesmuseum Linz; Generali Foundation Vienna/Salzburg.
An ongoing exploration of materiality and design possibilities – the artist comments ironically on modernism from a conceptual approach – is one of the main constants of Sepp Auer’s work. The quality of craftsmanship (he also has a solid training as locksmith) also plays a significant role.
His reluctance to give his works a title also clearly reflects the open dimension of his understanding of art. Allusions to various art movements such as minimal art or monochrome painting stake out his artistic ‘space’.His oeuvre also emphatically addresses the tension between image and sculpture. The “in your face” pieces (as the artist has described them himself) undermine and transform the static notion of sculpture. The unstable, provisional character is the defining aesthetic quality. Subverting artistic conventions of seeing is a further hallmark of Sepp Auer’s oeuvre and this is repeatedly accentuated by the inclusion of writing. Fusions, reversals, reflections are all part of his artistic play of deception.
(quoted from Carl Aigner)
Sepp Auer: “Toni Schmale selects similar materials, but conveys different ideas – an exciting dialogue.“
TONI SCHMALE, born 1980 in Hamburg, lives and works in Vienna. Studied performative art and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Monica Bonvicini. In 2011 he was awarded the Birgit Jürgenssen Prize and in 2013 the Prize of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Whether performances, drawings, animations, videos, interventions in public space or significant dysfunctional sculptures – Toni Schmale’s works are profoundly subtle studies that formulate a radical criticism of the existing social power structures with their stereotypical constructions of gender and narratives.
They are accompanied by ironic over-drawings that wittingly subvert being clearly classified. Fitness machines, torture instruments, sex toys are the transitional objects of desire – sculptural projection surfaces and transformers. By identifying oneself with positions, stances, attitudes without reference to clichéd role images it is possible to break through boundaries. The imaginary body uninhibitedly deploys its power: object/subject of desire, adversary or companion, SHE / HE / IT, top or bottom – in fantasy nothing loses control. The boundaries can be freely transformed, and so it is just the authority of the super-ego that must still be kept at bay.
(quoted from Christin Lahr, ngbk Berlin, 2015)
Toni Schmale: “sepp auer has humor.“