EVA SCHLEGEL

Born on March 8, 1960, in Hall in Tirol. Studied from 1979 to 1985 in Oswald Oberhuber's master class at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. From 1997 to 2006, professor of art and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. At the invitation of curator Peter Weibel, Eva Schlegel designed the façade of the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1995. She achieved international renown with a work that combined text and image. Eva Schlegel was curator of the Austrian contribution to the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Eva Schlegel's work encompasses photographic, object-based, and installation-based pieces, which she implements experimentally using various media such as photography on lead, mirrors, or glass, including in three-dimensional form. She addresses the boundaries of perception and challenges viewing habits. Her work focuses on the concept of space and immateriality. Schlegel's works are regularly shown in various international and national exhibition venues. She has implemented numerous projects in public spaces in Austria and abroad, including large-scale works for the Novartis Campus in Basel, the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, and the “Libelle” on the roof of the Leopold Museum in Vienna's Museumsquartier (2020), as well as the “cloudspace” pavilion (2019).

Since her early beginnings, Austrian artist Eva Schlegel has consistently explored the image and the viewer's relationship to it. She addresses the image in relation to various reference systems that form the basis of modernism but have been subjected to criticism in postmodernism: on the one hand, she deals with the image as “surface,” a topos of painting as well as digital media. On the other hand, it is about the (mimetic) image as a space of illusion, which lost its binding force in modernism, but in the popular media seemingly guarantees the all-encompassing availability of the visual. Schlegel plays both positions off against each other dialectically and questions their respective claims by representing the phenomenon of perception itself.

Awards (Selection)
2019 Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art
2017 Decoration of Honour of the Province of Tyrol
2011 Gold Award of Honour for Services to the Province of Vienna
2010 Tyrolean State Prize for Art
1999 Tyrolean State Prize for Contemporary Art
1996 Award of the City of Vienna
1992 European Photography Award

Solo exhibitions (Selection)
2020 all around the world. Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen
2019 un-limited. Ferenczy Museum, Budapest
2018 Spaces. Eva Schlegel, Kunsthalle Krems
2017 imaginary spaces. Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
2017 Subverting Solidity. Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
2014 MAM, Multimedia Art Museum, Moskau
2013 No Man´s Heaven. Eröffnungsausstellung, Salzburg Festival
2012 GALLERY SKE, Bangalore
2010 In Between. Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
2010 Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
2009 CIGE, Beijing
2009 Charim Ungar Contemporary, Berlin
2008 Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, Salzburg
2005 Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen
2005 Secession, Vienna
2004 Galerie Krinzinger (with Annelies Strba), Vienna
2001 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York
2001 Arbeiten 1991 – 2000 (Artworks 1991-2000). Museum für Lackkunst, Münster
2000 Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck
1999 Artcore Gallery, Toronto
1997 Streetlevel Gallery, Glasgow
1996 Il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome
1994 Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles
1994 The Photographer´s Gallery, London
1992 Interference VI. Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Palais Lichtenstein, Vienna
1991 Galeria Gentili, Florence
1991 Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau
1990 Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles

Projects (Selection)
2020 Intervention “Libelle”, Leopold Museum, Museumsquartier Vienna
2020 Intervention Rigshospitalet, Kopenhagen
2019 cloudspace. Museum Liaunig
2018 Teepavillon für die Ausstellung: Faszination Japan (Tea house for the exhibition „Fascination with Japan“). Kunstforum, Vienna
2017 Paravent Maria Theresia. Jewish Museum Vienna
2017 1601 Mission Street. Architektonische Intervention (1601 Mission Street. Architectural intervention), San Francisco
2015 369 Wochen, Mahnmal gegen Faschismus (369 Weeks. Memorial against Fascism). Vienna
2013 Permanent intervention Maker Maxity. Bandra Kurla, Mumbai
2007 Walkway, staircase – three permanent interventions. Novartis Campus, Basel

Group exhibitions (Selection)
2020 Bright Golden Haze. Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City
2020 The Cindy Sherman Effect. Kunstforum Vienna
2020 Großes Welttheater, 100 Jahre Salzburger Festspiele (Great World Theatre: 100 Years of the Salzburg Festival). Salzburg Museum
2020 Belonging. The Hunt Museum, Limerick
2019 Bodyfiction. MNHA Luxembourg
2019 Insight Nature. Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York
2018 Detour. Artipelag Museum, Sweden
2016 Kochi Muziris Biennale
2015 Vienna for Art’s Sake. Winterpalais Belvedere, Vienna
2013 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2012 Die Nacht im Zwielicht (The Night in the Twilight). Belvedere, Vienna
2009 Rückblick. Ausblick (Review. Perspective). Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund
2008 LeRoy Neiman Center for print Studies, New York
2006 Simultan. Fotomuseum Winterthur
2006 Why pictures Now. MUMOK, Wien
2003 LA women. Mak Center for Art and Architecture, L.A., Schindler House, Los Angeles
2000 Malerei, österreichische Künstlerinnen (Painting, Austrian female artists), Albertina
1999 Das Jahrhundert der Frau (The Century of the Woman). Kunstforum Wien
1998 L’autriche visionaire. Palais des Beaux-Arts Bruxelles 
1996 Antagonismes. Centre National de la Photographie, Paris
1995 The Media Pavillon, Venice Biennale
1995 Wunderkammer Österreich (Chamber of art and wonders Austria). Kunsthaus, Zurich
1992 The Boundary Rider. Sydney Biennale 
1990 Aperto, Venice Biennale 
1988 Sydney Biennale 

Bibliography (Selection)
2018 Steininger, Florian; Hoffer, Andreas (publisher): Eva Schlegel. Spaces. Berlin: Revolver Publishing
2012 Galleri Bo Bjerggaard (publisher): Eva Schlegel. Kopenhagen: Galleri Bo Bjerggaard
2010 Noever, Peter (publisher): Eva Schlegel. In Between. Vienna: MAK; Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst
2009 Schlebrügge, Johannes (publisher): Eva Schlegel. Stills at the back of the brain, Schlebrügge.Editor
2005 Lübbke-Tidow, Maren: Eva Schlegel. Vienna: Vereinigung Bildender KünstlerInnen Wiener Secession
2005 Schlegel, Eva: LA. WOMEN. Artists and Architects. Vienna: Schlebrügge.Editor
2002 Eiblmayr, Silvia: Eva Schlegel. Vienna: Triton Verlag
1991 Fuchs, Rainer: Eva Schlegel. Aarau: Aargauer Kunsthaus

www.evaschlegel.com