Modern & Contemporary Art Exhibitions in Salzburg

The Museum der Moderne Salzburg is dedicating two exhibitions at its two venues to the internationally renowned artist and Salzburg-based Georg Baselitz. Together, they span the decades from his early drawings to his monumental late oeuvre. Early works at the Rupertinum In the early 1960s, the artist made a conscious choice to produce figurative art—a decision that was seen as provocative at a time when abstract art was ascendant. His work not only broke new ground in painting, it also secured his place in art history as an innovator of postwar art. The exhibition at the Rupertinum puts the focus on his early graphic art, in which Baselitz wrestled with German history, identity, and the artistic ego, intertwining classical pictorial traditions with a forceful visual language that was often perceived as raw and disturbing. The presentation’s distinctive thematic organization takes guidance from the four manifestos the artist wrote in the 1960s. The exhibition is supported by loans from the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, loans Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, as well as additional private lenders. Both exhibitions and the publication on Georg Baselitz are supported by a special grant from the State of Salzburg and a private loan.

Georgia Gardner Gray (1988, New York, NY, US) is one of the most exciting painters of our time. She transforms our everyday into keenly observed and surprisingly disconcerting compositions using cultural symbols ranging from the prehistoric to the digital realm. Taking cues from pop culture and art history, Gray exposes the contradictions of the contemporary world through the absurdist staging of her pictures. With subtle wit and accurate detail, she highlights how our perceptions of history, art and authenticity can differ so widely. In her exhibition, she presents a series of new works set in prehistoric stone circles, exploring the concept of human and artistic heritage on a grand scale. What we recognize in cultural artifacts often reveals just as much about the present as it says about the objects’ past. Gray expands her exhibition with works from the collections – by Iris Andraschek, Lovis Corinth, and Leo Zogmayer –, selecting them for their mimetic qualities as one may source images using a search engine today. The encounter sparks a lively conversation about the interpretation of art and the caprice of artists’ inspiration.

Leon Löwentraut – Zwischen Energie, Farbe und Emotion in der Kunstgalerie Salzburg Mit der Leon Löwentraut Ausstellung Salzburg präsentiert die Galerie HAAS & GSCHWANDTNER einen der bekanntesten jungen Künstler Europas. Unter dem Titel "Between Energy and Silence" werden vom 23. Juli bis 18. September 2026 neue Werke des deutschen Künstlers gezeigt, die eindrucksvoll die Spannung zwischen Dynamik und Ruhe, Intuition und Kontrolle sichtbar machen. Der Künstler wird zur Eröffnung persönlich anwesend sein. Die expressive Bildsprache von Leon Löwentraut als Statement in der Kunstgalerie Salzburg Leon Löwentraut zählt zu den spannendsten Stimmen der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Seine Werke entstehen mit großer gestischer Freiheit und verbinden intensive Farbwelten mit einer außergewöhnlichen emotionalen Kraft. Charakteristisch sind seine ausdrucksstarken Gesichter, die sich aus unzähligen Linien, Farbschichten und spontanen Bewegungen zusammensetzen. Auch das ausgestellte Werk zeigt diese unverwechselbare Handschrift. Vor einem leuchtend blauen Hintergrund verdichten sich Formen, Farben und Strukturen zu einem Porträt, das zugleich gegenständlich und abstrakt wirkt. Goldene, weiße und türkisfarbene Elemente überlagern sich und erzeugen eine beeindruckende Tiefe. Der Betrachter entdeckt dabei immer neue Details und Perspektiven.

With Charlotte Perriand. Living Modernism: Design, Photography, Architecture the Museum der Moderne Salzburg dedicates the first major retrospective in Austria to the French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand. The exhibition covers both her work in architecture and design and her output as a photographer. In the Shadow of Le Corbusier After ten years the up-and-coming young architect and furniture designer Perriand left Le Corbusier’s studio. She had been responsible for numerous furniture and interior design projects, many of which are now considered icons of modern design and highly sought after by collectors. Around the same time, she branched out into photography; photographs both served her as a source of inspiration and became an element in their own right in selected furniture designs. A Pioneer of Modernism From the outset, Perriand’s thinking was holistic: she fused architecture, design, and photography in a comprehensive vision of lived-environments. Her works were never intended as autonomous objects, but rather as integral components of larger ensembles. This makes Perriand one of the most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century architecture and design. The exhibition is accompanied by an audio format in which Charlotte Perriand offers insights into her thinking on architecture, design, and the future through a fictional interview. The audio can be accessed via QR code at the stations marked with a circle throughout the exhibition. Exhibition organized by Kunstmuseen Krefeld in collaboration with Museum der Moderne Salzburg and Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona. In close consultation with Pernette Perriand-Barsac and Jacques Barsac of the Archives Charlotte Perriand. Sponsored by: Salzburger Tourismus Förderungs Fonds and Institut français d’Autriche. Cassina is the museum’s premium partner for the exhibition. A publication will be released in conjunction with the exhibition.

In. Corri.. and Door..., Philip Emde (*1976 in Mannheim, lives and works in Cologne) resists the epilogue of a classical retrospective. The term feels too definitive for an oeuvre in which past, present, and possibility do not unfold sequentially, but exist simultaneously. Instead of looking backward, the exhibition bets on simultaneity. Memories, familial origins, artistic developments, and new experiences enter into dialogue with one another, forming a continuous present. The Steiff animals are far more than recurring motifs within Emde’s work. Over decades, the artist has amassed an extensive collection and arranged them throughout his studios. His paintings and installations emerge from these figures. Sometimes they sit on shelves, sometimes they appear individually, and sometimes they encounter one another in carefully composed constellations. Elephants, frogs, monkeys, leopards, and crocodiles populate his pictorial world as active characters in a complex, emotional topography. – Elisa Mosch Having exhibited extensively on an international level, the artist's work is widely represented in renowned private and institutional collections.

The Art of Now: A Contemporary Perspective presents a diverse range of works by emerging and established artists from around the world. The exhibition explores contemporary art practices, challenging conventional notions of art and its role in society.

As the exhibition’s title indicates, KENTON NELSON presents ten new watercolors that extend the universe of his stylized imagery and enrich it with new motifs. The pictures render idyllic impressions from his Californian surroundings and captivate the viewer with the delicate, luminous quality that is distinctive to watercolor painting. "Nelson’s pictures blend spatial distance with emotional depth. His luminous planar visual idiom sets the stage for instants of uncertainty—situations frozen in time in which much remains unresolved." Constanze Malissa in Painting a Perfect World, Kerber Verlag 2026 The motifs of the watercolors are drawn from scenes of suburban life imbued with an enchanting reminiscence of the timeless ideal of the past. It is in fact by referencing the advertising aesthetics of the 1950s and adapting it to the contemporary context that the pictures strive to transcend a specific place in time. This principle invites comparison to Thomas Mann’s story The Wardrobe, in which a traveler, cutting the cords that tie him to time, journeys into the unknown without watch or calendar and becomes entangled in a narrative filled with peculiar, enigmatic encounters. Just as Mann’s traveler inhabits the space of that which has no place, the beholder of NELSON’s pictures is presented with a perpetually weightless context that reveals sensitive anecdotes. The latter at most hinted at yet never fully realized, let alone grounded in explicit narrative. The figures should be seen not as individuals but as delicate allegories of inner states of mind and suspended presences. "We are voyeurs. I would rather leave it up to the viewer’s imagination to finish the story, given my suggestion." Kenton Nelson in Painting a Perfect World, Kerber Verlag 2026 In no small part due to their formats, the compositions of the watercolors on view have the aura of close-ups. They cast the viewers as silent accomplices of the moment. As if peering through a keyhole at the artist’s personal feelings, one gazes upon a fragment of life lifted out of context. NELSON’s characteristic compositions clip his motifs and condense them in linear, almost two-dimensional views. Glimpses and vistas as well as a reality that is captured as though in photographs and fragmented in the process coalesce into a larger story that is grasped only in scattered pieces.