With our lockdown days behind us for now, we all should be making the most of the cultural offerings that are happening in Vienna this summer, right?
And there’s plenty on offer! An array of art on walls that will no doubt inspire you and make you tilt your head in that sexy deep-in-thought expression that you do, photography exhibitions to make you think deep, and a new art fair that’s hitting Vienna’s streets – here’s what exhibitions you certainly shouldn’t miss out on this summer in the city:
1. Women Artists of the Wiener Werkstätte
05.05.2021 to 03.10.2021 | MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
You may already know some faces of the Wiener Werkstätte – MAK is digging out the often overlooked players in the Wiener Werkstätte’s history. 180 women that have almost been forgotten amongst their fellow male artists and 90 of them will be exhibitedm, including Mathilde Flögl, Maria Likarz, Felice Rix, and Vally Wieselthier. Their art intrigues you with fantastic fabric patterns, exceptional murals for interiors and expressive ceramics.
2. After the End and Before the Beginning
11.02.2021 to 08.08.2021 | Videoinstallation in Theatermuseum
Those who haven’t heard of the crowd, toxic dreams, by now should be prepared to fall in love for good.
Normally producing theatre shows that refuse coherent narrative, they like busying themselves with the slippery chaotic nature of reality. This time around, they’ve put together a video installation currently housed in the Theatermuseum.
It’s a collection of possible answers to the question: What is a character from a famous play, like Hamlet, Macbeth or A Streetcar Named Desire, about to do when the plot ends? Are they living happily ever after, or does disaster strike again?
3. The Body Electric: ERWIN OSEN – EGON SCHIELE
16.04.–26.09.2021 | Leopold Museum
In the good old days of Wiener Moderne, art was very much connected with clinical medicine. This is the reason behind why the Leopold Museum is grabbing some of the undiscovered sketches from Erwin Olsen and Egon Schiele that they made in hospital and are putting it up on their walls.
4. Faces. Die Macht des Gesichts
UNTIL 20.06.2021 | Albertina
At this exhibition, you can watch Helmar Lerski turn the concept of portrait photography on its head.
Until the 1920s and 1930s, portraits were taken to reveal the personality of the human being in front of the lens.
In the series, Verwandlungen mit Licht, the face becomes a bare canvas, painted with lights and shadows to reveal contemplations about the relationship between individual and type, feminist role-play and political ideologies.
5. Nobuyoshi Araki
19.05.2021 to 01.08.2021 | Westlicht
The Japanese artist, Nobuyoshi Araki, is a living legend who gets a fair amount of attention and controversy.
Considering this fact, it will come as no surprise when we tell you that his oeuvre is filled with things like an obsessive preoccupation with sexuality and death. He likes to mix documentary and fictional narratives, and he likes to examine the act of censorship.
6. ELFIE SEMOTAN – Position and Pose
05.05.-29.08.21 | Kunst Haus Wien
Elfie Semotan is one of the most well-known Austrian female photographers, who has worked in the fashion and advertising industry. Her work can be spotted in various magazines like Vogue, Elle, Esquire, Marie Claire and The New Yorker.
What she describes in an interview to be special about this exhibition, is that it has a non-chronological order.
The artworks are arranged by curators and herself to make it appealing to the eyes of all who visit the exhibition.
7. WONDERLAND
UNTIL 19.9.2021 | Albertina Modern
Blue Caterpillars, big-headed queens and shrinking little girls? Nah, we’ve seen all of this before.
But how about a quirky universe in which anything can happen, and believing in the impossible is just a question of training?
This exhibition at the Albertina Modern is a walk through all of the pleasures of utopian life, and explores feelings like melancholy and loneliness that would be delivered in a dystopia world.
You’ll see the lines between past and future blurred at this fascinating exhibition at this very cool museum.
8. Xenia Hausner. True Lies
UNTIL 8.8.2021 | Albertina Modern
What if there was an imaginary world in which all of the themes and stories have a strong and complex female figures at their center? Xenia Hausner has created this kind of world in her art that walks between photography and paintings.
9. SPARK – Art Fair Vienna
24.6.2021–27.6.2021 | MARX HALLE
This new art fair gathering all kinds of exhibitions in the one space showcases not only one, but three different approaches to the relationship between art, artist and curator.
The exhibition, Utopia, for instance, is dealing with the destruction and shock of the Second World War, and how to find new art forms, networks and utopias again.
Then there’s the exhibition, Perspektiven presents art as an antidote for insensitivity, because it helps us understand different lifestyles and helps us keep our individuality.
Your mind will certainly travel and be filled with lots to think about at this new art fair coming to Vienna in July.
10. Azteken
15.10.2021 bis 22.6.2021 | Welt Museum Wien
Yes, we’re all missing those adventurous trips in far away lands where everything is new and exciting.
Therefore, the Weltmuseum is bringing a rich collection of 200 ancient Aztec-related items, sourced from Mexican and European museums to Vienna, so that you can explore and be mesmerised by the fascinating world of the Aztec Empire.
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