W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher

Elke Silvia Krystufek’s versatility is already evident in her artistic fields of activity. Her art deals with painting, installation and photography, and she also writes literary texts, books and plays. Irritation, breaking taboos and confronting everyday, political and cultural issues are constantly present in Krystufek’s artistic exploration. The viewer cannot avoid a reaction – be it shame, aggression, enthusiasm or admiration. Krystufek’s performances of the 1990s are often associated with Viennese Actionism. The artist herself, however, sees in this only a quotation, as do many other artist colleagues of her generation. From an always emancipatory point of view, she works not only with performance art but also with a wide variety of media and techniques, such as painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, collages, video, jewellery, fashion, etc. At the SPARK Art Fair Vienna, we will present early collages from the 1980s, portrait drawings of real persons and fictional characters as well as current works by the artist.

Elke Silvia Krystufek was born in Vienna in 1970. Immediately after leaving school, she devoted herself to studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. From 1988 to 1993 she studied in Arnulf Rainer’s class. Already in her artistic beginnings, Krystufek staged her own life. Public performances in which she uses her body as a medium generate great media attention and lead to controversy. In „Action“, for example, she inflicts wounds on herself in order to paint her naked body with the blood. As early as 2001 she taught as a visiting professor at the Linz Art University and from 2005 at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. In the same year, she took up a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 2009 she founded her own archive and exhibited in the Austria Pavilion at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia. From 2011, the artist uses the artist name „Elke Silvia Krystufek“, which is also created as her own artwork. A differentiation in perception between the private person and the art figure is difficult to grasp due to the stringent staging. Elke Silvia Krystufek’s versatility is evident in her artistic activities. In her art she deals with painting, installation and photography. She also writes literary texts, books and plays inspired by the artist Josef Albers, the writer H.G. Wells and the designer Cathy Pill. Irritation, the breaking of taboos and the confrontation with everyday, political and cultural themes are constantly present in her artistic exploration. The viewer cannot avoid a reaction.

Since 1997 the gallery is specializing in Austrian and international modern art, showing Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Lyonel Feininger, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, George Grosz and E.L. Kirchner. Many of the exhibitions are accompanied by extensive, scientific catalogs. W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher regularly participate in selected national and international art fairs in New York, Munich, Salzburg, London, Paris, Vienna and Maastricht. In 2013 W&K associated with the New York based gallery Shepherd W&K Galleries. As lender of museum-quality artworks W&K is also cooperating with museums and international collections such as Kunsthaus Zürich, Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, Fondation Louis Vuitton, The Barbican Center, The National Gallery London, Kunsthalle Moritzburg, Albertina, Belvedere etc. In 2016 an additional gallery space was opened in the barock Palais Schönborn-Batthyány in the city center of Vienna to present international post-war and contemporary art.