Johanes Zechner

Johanes Zechner (born November 26, 1953 in Klagenfurt ) is an Austrian visual artist .

life and work

Johanes Zechner is one of the most important representatives of "New Painting" in Austria. He studied printmaking and painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (1972–1977) and at the Royal College of Art London. It is represented in numerous international collections and museums.

Zechner's artistic strategy since 1985 has consisted of continually changing the center of his life, which stimulates him to new experiences and site-specific work. The result of these mostly longer stays in European cities (Vienna, Cologne, Berlin, London, Prague, most recently Hamburg) and longer project trips to numerous countries around the world (Ireland, Israel, India, USA, Ghana, Patagonia, Yugoslavia, Greece, etc.) is a Oeuvre that consists of various painterly and graphic work groups :

• ABC Pictures (1982)
• New Games (1984–1986)
• Suitcase work (suitcases filled with pictures) (since 1986)
• Rustica and sculpture drawings (1987–1992)
• Visual translations of poetry (since 1992)
• Triptychs and Diptychs (since 1993)
• Flag cycle (1995/96)
• Retort sculptures (since 1998)
• Netzbilder (since 2000)
• Edition Lessiak (with Peter Waterhouse) (since 2000)
• Flags and Networks - Dipthyches (2001/02)
• Puzzle paintings (since 2002)
• LAB series (since 2012)
• The Maidan Work Block 2015

His work is characterized by conscious “sidesteps” in various forms of expression in the visual arts, for example in performance , room installation and film. However, he always returns to painting. Not only the intensive contact with authors, text and poetry, but also the inclusion of gender identities, everyday myths and elementary symbols has created a unique visual language at Zechner. It is consistently timeless and subtly personal, on the whole resembles visually laconic, “non-expressionist notes” ( Robert Fleck ) of his surroundings. There has been a longstanding collaboration with the writer Peter Waterhouse and the composer Karlheinz Essl .

Works by Zechner can be found in the collection of the Belvedere (Vienna), the Essl Museum (Klosterneuburg / Vienna), the Rupertinum Museum der Moderne (Salzburg), the art collection of the City of Vienna, the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt, in the Chemnitz City Art Collections and in the Liaunig Collection (Neuhaus / Carinthia). Johanes Zechner is a member of the Vienna Secession and the Saxon Academy of the Arts , Dresden.

Awards and scholarships (selection)

• 1974 Leopold Goess Promotion Prize, Klagenfurt
• 1987 Anton Faistauer Prize for Painting from the State of Salzburg
• 1987–1988 British Council Fellowship, London
• 1992 Prize at the Austrian graphic competition, Innsbruck
• 2001 Moldavian scholarship
• 2002 working grant from the BKA-Kunst, Vienna

Lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1991: Thaddäus Ropac Gallery , Triptychen Salzburg
• 1992: Studio gallery of the Municipal Museum, Morsbroich Castle , Leverkusen
• 1993: Chemnitz Municipal Art Collections and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, VIENNA B
• 1996: Ulysses Gallery Vienna, flag paintings
• 1998: Kulturhaus der Stadt Graz, Hirnschneien- der Reinhard Priessnitz cycle , Graz
• 2000: Galerie Lelong Zurich (with Erwin Bohatsch)
• 2002: Rupertinum , Museum for Modern Art Salzburg and Lippische Gesellschaft für Kunst eV Detmold, flags and networks
• 2006: Essl Museum , Klosterneuburg, Trauma and Dream - the Berlin suitcase
• 2007: Museum of Modern Art Passau - Wörlen Foundation, sculptures
• 2008: Minoriten Galleries Graz - This White Ecstasy. - 99 drawings with sentences by Inger Christensen
• 2010: Galerie Ruth Sachse, WIENNEU
• 2013: Minoriten Galleries Graz, "WORT UND WANGE, the Friederike Mayröcker cycle"
• 2015: M17 art center, Kiev, "The Maydan work block"

Web links

Commons : Johanes Zechner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website Johanes Zechner