GRAZ.- SCHÖN VERMÄHLT is the most comprehensive solo exhibition to date of the work of Kamilla Bischof (*1986 Graz, lives in Berlin), an important Austrian artist of the younger generation. In an open layout space Bischof shows a new series of large-scale paintings which, while inspired by reality, lead into worlds of fantasy. A specially designed artist book in which she juxtaposes recent paintings and photographs with prose interspersed with images demonstrates the double talent of the artist and writer.

In her paintings, too, Bischof employs surprising narrative strategies whose convincing technique makes it possible for figuration to interact with abstraction in the image composition in productive ways. The artist’s subjects are vibrant, colorful scenarios in which human figures, animals, but also fantastic creatures are the protagonists. What they have in common is a generally joyful combinational gesture which in its painterly sophistication opens up potential shifts in perception and thus different readings of the pictures. The symbolic character of Bischof’s images triggers her audience’s collective visual memory and oscillates between machine-like states and dramatic postures. The represented figures and objects are evidence of a memorable visual vocabulary, whereas the backgrounds largely range from diffuse to abstract, thus creating the impression that the scenes she represents are dream sequences which, while in essence clear and perfectly recognizable, outwardly rapidly fade, like a memory.

With her compositions Kamilla Bischof develops an ever-expanding repertoire of recurring motifs and interiors. Through the masterly staged interplay of figures and objects in a polarity between the surreal and reality she is able to formulate narratives which because of their complexity remain open and ambiguous. The artist fluently moves along the pure coincidences of daily life between installation, photography, performance and text, thus expanding the narrative framework in all directions to the point where her wide-ranging activities finally gently intertwine as the proper elements of painterly art.

Kamilla Bischof (*1986 Graz, lives in Berlin) successfully completed the painting class at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and the School for Artistic Photography, Vienna. Her works were exhibited in solo presentations, including at the Bar du Bois, Vienna (2013), the Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg (2017), Sandy Brown at the Art Berlin (2017) and FIAC Paris (2018), and in group exhibitions at the Acappella, Naples (2018), the Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna (2019), and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019).

The exhibition is accompanied by a lecture by art historian Melanie Ohnemus and a reading by poet Sonja vom Brocke. Both will also be featured on the institution’s online magazine KM– Journal. A limited artists book is available.

Curator: Sandro Droschl