Monthly Archives: December 2013

Nikolaus Eberstaller

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Nikolaus Eberstaller

Nikolaus Eberstaller was born in Klosterneuburg (Austria) in 1968. From 1989 to 1994 he studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna. Although he did not finish his studies, he became a freelance graphic designer in Gols. In June 1999 his first book of grotesque drawings was published. His father`s early death in October of the same year has a major influence on his artistic development. For years working as a draftsman, he is now orientated to expressive painting. In 2001 the work group Fashion and Foolishness is being created, which criticizes Eberstaller`s thematized conflict of outer appearance and inner truth. In the summer Eberstaller met for the first time Peter Infeld, one of the biggest art collectors in Austria. He invited Eberstaller to participate in an exhibition in his gallery and buys in the following years a number of his works from his studio.

In December 2001 Eberstaller meets, not accidentally, the owner of a castle Thomas Gamperl, fundator of the Arts Foundation Forum Castle Krasków in Polish Silesia. The experience density around Gamperl and his companions mark the 33-year old Eberstaller who falls for the first time into the orbit of his greatest desires – the lifestyle of the former 20`s to 50`s art of the last century. The Time Machine seems to have pulled him in his dream world. In 2003 he received a scholarship from the Foundation Forum Krasków and takes the large event hall as a studio. While in Poland the work groups Krasków I – IV are being made, Eberstaller dedicates himself to public art in Austria.

The most impressive of these works is produced for the design bar MOLE WEST on the shore of Neusiedle Lake, for which Eberstaller not only designs the corporate design but also wraps the building in its spherical dancing northern light. In the following years Eberstaller has exhibitions in Krakow, Wroclaw, Berlin and Austria. In 2004 Eberstaller gets seriously ill. During the recovery from the artificial coma in the Rudolf Foundation Vienna fragmentary sketches arise, experiences at first hand. This work leads to the works group THE REAL LIFE COLLECTION, representing these experiences in digital composites and at regular intervals document the life of the artist. After recovering the bronzes Red Cherub and Naked Man I and II are poured into poses. In 2005, the 30sqm Secoo ‘Seven Emotions’ for the winemakers and restaurateurs couple Heidi and Josef Lentsch – Guest house for Gratitude – is created. In 2006 he created ‘Cocoon’ as public art for the gourmet restaurant at the Nyikonospark of Fritz Tösch. In 2007 Eberstaller designs an artful guest room for the hotelier Wolfgang Stündl and his top chef Gerald Jeitler. The year 2009 looks promising: Art for the mii-AG and in the following years solo exhibitions in Austria, Germany and Poland.

Katrin Korfmann

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Katrin Korfmann

grew up in Berlin/Germany and lives and works in Amsterdam/The Netherlands. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where she spezialised in photography and continued her research with residencies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Cittadellarte in Biella/Italy and the Chinese European Art Centre in Xiamen/China.
She won several prizes for her work, including the Radostar Prize (CH), Prix de Rome ( IT, 2nd prize) and the Esther Kroon Award (NL). She also received grants from international institutions like the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Akademie der Künste Berlin (GER), and the Mondriaan Fund (NL). Since the late 1990s her work has been internationally exhibited in galleries, museums, alternative art institutions and public spaces. Her work is represented in numerous private and public international collections.

The recent photography works by Katrin Korfmann are usually recognized as abstract paintings, while they give lot more details as our bare eye can see at first glance. 
The artist reveals the presence of a particular event  and suggests an impression of a “magic moment”,  as she brings together different times of shots into a single moment. Using a remote-controlled Helicam, from 500 to 2000 digital photographs can be made with, it takes the artist several months to compose a final complex image. Here, a well-thought choreography of manipulation of light and shade controls the perception of her images. Especially the bird’s eye view allows a fleeting of an event to place it at the center of attention. Titles as ‘Vrindavan (41 min), 2012’ or ‘Shanghai (46 min), 2013’ also refer to a time period, where the “unique” moment is put under question. The time so to speak frozens. The final work of art irritates also because of its oversized dimensionality, and it produces an artificial effect, as the artist handles the installation playfully. All detailed images are visible and appear to be simultaneously, but some depicted persons are set in motion or rigidity. The fascination of her pictures is in the aesthetics of the works and in their composition of the illusory simultaneity: seen from the distance an abstract, color-intensive work and considered in the vicinity, a cosmos that unfolds itself out of details.