Modern & Contemporary Art Exhibitions in Vienna

Solo Exhibition by Ana de Almeida Opening: Tuesday, September, 15, 2026, 6 pm Duration: 16.09. – 17.10.2026 Location: DAS WEISSE HAUS, souterrain Address: Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna, Austria Welcoming Words by: BLOCKFREI Collective (Leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS) together with guests from the Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme and the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest About the exhibition Ana de Almeida’s Someone Will Water Them traces carnations and roses as political statements within the archive of Cold War revolutionary discourse. The exhibition approaches the Portuguese Carnation Revolution (April 25, 1974) and the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution (November 17, 1989) from a perspective of entangled history, examining the symbolic shifts from socialist floristry to the contemporary deployment of floral symbolism as non-violent counter-statement to authoritarian regimes. A modular aluminium structure conceived for the souterrain of DAS WEISSE HAUS simultaneously functions as greenhouse architecture, display infrastructure, and sculptural object. Etched metal drawings, small-scale archival photographs and living carnations and roses grown in a garden in Upper Austria coexist in a single spatial field, forming a constellation rather than a linear argument. The greenhouse structure references both the state greenhouses of socialist Czechoslovakia and the contemporary export greenhouses of Kenya, Colombia, and the Netherlands, positioning IN(TER)DEPENDENCE as the exhibition’s operative condition: flowers that once signified collective sovereignty were always already embedded in the transnational dependencies of industrial floriculture. Revolutionary flowers, it turns out, have never been free. Erste Bank Art Award Now in its eleventh year, the Erste Bank Art Award—developed as a collaboration of DAS WEISSE HAUS and the Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme—celebrates artists who redefine and expand contemporary discourse. This edition is presented in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest. Apart from the solo exhibition in Vienna, at DAS WEISSE HAUS, the award entails a one-month residency in Budapest and another solo exhibition there, set to open in early 2027. Our special thanks go to the team of Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme and to the jury of Erste Bank Art Award 2026 for the cooperation and support! Jury Members Georgia Holz (Freelance Curator, Author, and Editor, Vienna) Nevena Janković (BLOCKFREI Collective and Leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS) Eva Kovač (BLOCKFREI Collective and Leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS) Fabian Ortner (Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest)

(EN) Excerpt from “Walter or You jerk you didn’t call me up” […] Outside, it had started raining. Or maybe it had been raining for some time and I hadn’t noticed. Beyond the glass, the city lay blurred and real, while beside me a woman stood in another year at another window, perhaps waiting, or just smoking. Walter came to stand beside me. WALTER: Well? I covered the microphone with my hand. ME: Well what? WALTER: Is everything all right now? ME: Of course not. He nodded, as though that came as a relief. On the other end of the line, Jerk said my name. For a moment, the window held all our reflections – Walter, you, and me. Not Jerk, though I could hear his voice. I pressed my hand to the glass. It was cold. JERK: Can you hear me? ME: Yes. JERK: What are you doing? I looked at our reflections, at the pictures behind us and the dark city beyond – or the other way round. ME: I’m trying to figure out who’s looking at whom. JERK: What? I thought of Althoff. “You’ll never understand this.” And then: “How wonderful it would be if you could.” ME: Whether it’s possible to love someone without understanding them. A pause. I looked at Walter. He looked back. JERK: Well? ME: I don’t know.

EXILE is looking forward to presenting a solo exhibition of a previously unseen body of work by artist David Medalla (1938-2020). The exhibition will be curated by Francesca Gavin and Adam Nankervis as part of this year’s edition of curated by – the gallery festival with international curators in Vienna. Matelot, Matelot: the unseen work of David Medalla ‘Matelot’ was a song written and released by Noël Coward, ten days after the end of war in 1945. It is a bittersweet ode to a sailor, the vocalist mourning his departure and calling him over the sea. From a contemporary point of view, it is impossible not to

Today, photography and travel are inextricably linked – yet this connection dates back to the establishment of the new medium in the nineteenth century. The exhibition The World in Focus is dedicated to travel and expedition photography from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, when photography was increasingly employed to capture images of the world. Photographs were valued for their precision, wealth of detail, and reproducibility. Compared with the draughtsmen who had previously accompanied expeditions and were gradually replaced by photographers, work on site could also be carried out much more quickly. The extensive series at the heart of the exhibition depict different regions of the world and tell of shifting claims to power, the expansion of mobility, the exploration of remote landscapes, and the emergence of tourism. The presentation also sheds light on the contexts in which photographers were sent on journeys, the conditions under which the images were created, and the ways in which they were presented in exhibitions, facilitated the transfer of knowledge, and had a lasting impact on perceptions of distant territories.

Christine König Galerie zeigt im Rahmen von curated by eine von Max Dax kuratierte Ausstellung der 2005 verstorbenen Malerin Sabine REUTER. Presence of an Absence bringt ein zeichnerisches und malerisches Werk zurück in die Öffentlichkeit, das über zwei Jahrzehnte nahezu vollständig bewahrt geblieben ist – und dessen eigentümliche Gegenwärtigkeit heute umso deutlicher hervortritt. Sabine REUTER starb 2005 im Alter von nur 51 Jahren. Sie hinterließ mehr als tausend Zeichnungen und Malereien und ein nahezu vollständig erhaltenes Atelier in Stuttgart, das nach ihrem Tod dank des Engagements ihres Mannes Richard Lampert unangetastet blieb. Wer dieses Atelier heute betritt, begegnet der Anwesenheit einer Abwesenheit. Bücher, Fotoalben und Planschränke, Farben, Lacke und Gipsabgüsse, Zeitungsausschnitte, Fundstücke und die Rohstoffe ihrer Malerei sind geblieben. Im Portugiesischen gibt es für eine solche Erfahrung den Begriff saudade : die Anwesenheit einer Abwesenheit. Diese „presence of an absence“ bildet den Ausgangspunkt der Ausstellung. REUTER war eine Künstlerin der Verdichtung. Ihre Malerei entstand aus einem Denken, das Literatur, Lyrik, Musik, Philosophie, Mathematik und Alltagsbeobachtung nicht voneinander trennte. Sie las Gertrude Stein, Ernst Jandl, Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek, Robert Musil, Ingeborg Bachmann und Paul Celan; Ludwig Wittgenstein wurde zu einem wichtigen Bezugspunkt. Aus der Beschäftigung mit Sprache übernahm sie weniger Aussagen, als Verfahren: Verkürzung, Wiederholung, Bruch, Verschiebung und Auslassung. Was in einem Gedicht eine Silbe oder in einer Formel ein Zeichen sein kann, wird bei ihr zu Farbe, Fläche, Material und Spur. Ihre Bilder sind deshalb keine Illustrationen von Gedanken. Sie sind Denkbewegungen – und zugleich von einem ausgeprägten Gespür für Rhythmus getragen. Raumaufteilungen, Proportionen und Farbfolgen wirken bisweilen wie visuelle Versmaße. Der unsichtbare Puls von Musik und der Rhythmus konkreter Lyrik finden in ihrer Malerei eine Entsprechung, ohne sich je in eindeutige Bedeutungen übersetzen zu lassen. Buchstaben, Zahlen, Daten, Textfragmente, Zeitungsausschnitte, Städtekarten und mathematische Formeln treffen auf Gips, Sand, Schellack und

ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA Op Art works are designed to set viewers’ eyes in motion—it is an art style that seeks to challenge the sense of sight in a very special way, calling for no prior knowledge, and being spontaneously experienceable. It established itself in America and Europe in the mid-1960s. Fascinated by the physical laws of light and optics, an entire generation of artists devoted themselves to the study of optical phenomena and the fundamentals of perception. While Op Art has fallen somewhat into obscurity over the decades, it remains a revolutionary art born from a revolutionary era. It was from the 1950s that Victor Vasarely and Marc Adrian put our vision to the test with optical effects. The bold colors of Vasarely’s strictly geometric patterns, as well as the stark contrasts of his black-and-white paintings continue to inform the aesthetics of painting and design today. The depiction of movement in art is also the central subject matter of Marc Adrian, nearly a quarter-century younger than Vasarely. Throughout his life, he kept exploring the boundaries of the depictable, in respect of both content and the materiality of his works.

(EN) Excerpt from “Walter or You jerk you didn’t call me up” […] Outside, it had started raining. Or maybe it had been raining for some time and I hadn’t noticed. Beyond the glass, the city lay blurred and real, while beside me a woman stood in another year at another window, perhaps waiting, or just smoking. Walter came to stand beside me. WALTER: Well? I covered the microphone with my hand. ME: Well what? WALTER: Is everything all right now? ME: Of course not. He nodded, as though that came as a relief. On the other end of the line, Jerk said my name. For a moment, the window held all our reflections – Walter, you, and me. Not Jerk, though I could hear his voice. I pressed my hand to the glass. It was cold. JERK: Can you hear me? ME: Yes. JERK: What are you doing? I looked at our reflections, at the pictures behind us and the dark city beyond – or the other way round. ME: I’m trying to figure out who’s looking at whom. JERK: What? I thought of Althoff. “You’ll never understand this.” And then: “How wonderful it would be if you could.” ME: Whether it’s possible to love someone without understanding them. A pause. I looked at Walter. He looked back. JERK: Well? ME: I don’t know.

The ALBERTINA Museum, VIENNA He is one of the most well-known comedy legends in the German-speaking world: Otto Waalkes. And he has played this role for a while. Generations have laughed about his wordplay and musical parodies. His legendary films, his unforgettable television appearances, his songs, and his verses have become an integral part of pop culture. For decades, he has also won the hearts of people—young and old alike—and cracked them up with his “Ottifants.” His serious (?) artistic ambitions are less known. As a painter, he has made his iconic character roam art history. During his time in an artists’ housing co-op with Udo Lindenberg, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, and others, OTTO was a student at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. The ALBERTINA Museum and its collection have always fascinated him, and now OTTO has achieved his destination with an intervention in the Habsburg staterooms: on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of its founding, the museum has asked him to revisit and comment upon selected masterpieces from the Graphic Art Collection—for which he naturally pursues a tongue-in-cheek approach. Otto Waalkes thus encounters famous

Krastiņa has been granted this year’s SPOT Exchange Award. The award includes a six-month residency in Vienna with a working space at STUDIO DAS WEISSE HAUS, offering the selected artist/curator dedicated resources, a vibrant and supportive creative environment, and meaningful engagement with a wide artistic network. The residency concludes with a final curated duo-exhibition on the upper floor of DAS WEISSE HAUS, planned to be realized in collaboration with QMA Artist Collective 2026. SPOT Exchange is a collaborative initiative by Art Academy of Latvia and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, together with Zuzeum Art Centre and DAS WEISSE HAUS. The program supports the professional development of emerging artists and curators through international exchange, mentorship, and connections between academic and professional artistic contexts. Following an artistic fellowship within the same program in 2025 — when DAS WEISSE HAUS welcomed Latvian artist Krišjānis Beļavskis as Artist-in-Residency at STUDIO DAS WEISSE HAUS from July to December — this exchange now continues with a six-month curatorial fellowship in Vienna. About the curator: Avelīna Armanda Krastiņa is an emerging curator from Latvia whose practice explores the intersections of contemporary art, activism, and the representation of nonhuman animals. Her curatorial work focuses on how exhibitions can function as critical and socially engaged platforms that address ethical questions around human–animal relationships. During her residency, Krastiņa will develop an exhibition exploring how contemporary art can challenge anthropocentric perspectives and create new ways of thinking about interspecies relationships, ecological responsibility, and sustainable futures. Her curatorial approach is informed by her MA studies in Curatorial Studies at the Art Academy of Latvia and her previous experience as a veterinary assistant, which shaped her understanding of the ethical complexities of human–animal relations.

ALBERTINA MUSEUM, VIENNA This major show undertakes an exciting juxtaposition of the 20th century’s two most important figurative painters: Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. Bacon was inspired to become a painter by Picasso’s works. Throughout his life, he would compete with him, eventually striving to surpass him. Bacon wanted to be the late 20th-century version of what Picasso was to its first half: a chronicler of being human in all of its tornness. Both of these seminal artists placed human existence at the core of their pictorial worlds. The subject they shared was the human figure – pulled apart, thrown back together, and reinvented with an unprecedented savagery. In their distorted portrayals, they elucidated pain, desire, and vulnerability, holding up a merciless mirror to the modern soul. To both, themes such as crucifixions, screams, bullfights, nudes, and the Tears of Eros revealed the drama of life itself. Although Picasso for his part was never influenced by Bacon, he followed his career very closely.

Fields of flowers, enchanted forests, and mysterious waterfalls seem as if born of a wild fever dream: gigantic flowers weave their way toward the sky like trees, plants mutate into things familiar seeming yet unknown, blazing sunsets reflect upon the water, stars glow on the horizon and bathe the landscape in their supernatural light. The paintings of Shara Hughes (*1981 in Atlanta, Georgia) embody a journey through the trials, tribulations, the jungle-like terrain of an overwhelmingly rich inner world, and their motifs are charged with symbolism. While some works pay homage to Georgia O’Keeffe, the artist’s expressive use of color is owed above all to fauvist approaches to landscape depiction as well as the expressionism of the modern era.

In addition to the interior, the exterior space was also used for an Extra – Gerhard Himmer’s serial wall piece “Trust”, which makes use of advertising vocabulary, received a whole new twist in the environment of social institutions. The third exhibition accomodation we captured the space of the former social ministry in the fifth district of Vienna – indeed a little more outlying however it was a speciality to realize many projects even in this culturally more calm area. In the loft similar, friendly and cream-coloured building with big windows some well-known optical details were present: orange coloured power sockets, much linoleum and solid guide rails. The long hallway as well as the nearly cellular floor plan will stay in good memory. In addition to us, the property continued to be used by several social institutions. Starting in Fall 2010, this became my usual start into a day almost for a year, since das weisse haus had occupied Geigergasse 5–9. My first working day started at the moving truck on Wollzeile, waiting to depart to the fifth district. Right there I already experienced, live and in technicolor, the full team in action, carrying boxes and furniture and got the instant feeling of great times ahead at das weisse haus. I particularly remember the time and exchange with the wonderful colleagues in this year – be it drinking instant coffee at team meetings every Tuesday, behind the bar at the openings, during installation of the exhibitions or filling the walls while disassembling them afterwards. Coming fresh from university, there was no better place for me to watch and learn from scratch, how an exhibition with young artists would grow and how artists appropriated the rooms of this old official building each time differently using it as an artistic medium. I have taken my love for the spaces behind art works with me from the time in das weisse haus. Nomadically inclined as well, I was fascinated by the moving-around, the occupation and appropriation of old buildings and their structures.

ALBERTINA, VIENNA Women artists have always been a part of art history – but their work has seldom received the recognition it deserves. This epoch-spanning exhibition takes stock for the first time of the women artists in the Albertina’s collection, presenting works from five centuries: from drawings and prints by early engravers and publishers, which were collected by Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and Archduchess Maria Christina of Habsburg-Lorraine themselves, to modern artists and pioneering feminist artists of the 1970s. Collectively, the biographies in Her Story portray women artists as enterprising, engaged protagonists who explored the world around them and established important networks as they pursued their careers. Featuring works by Diana Scultori, Magdalena de Passe, Maria Sibylla Merian, Angelica Kauffmann, Berthe Morisot, Käthe Kollwitz, Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, and VALIE EXPORT – and many more.

The ALBERTINA Museum is devoting a retrospective to Franz West (1947–2012) in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday. This nonconformist artist, known for an unruly personality characterized by willfulness and humor, participated in multiple editions of documenta and the Venice Biennale, whose Golden Lion he received in 2011. It was under the influence of Viennese Actionism that West originated his legendary Adaptives in the 1970s: by being worn, held, and applied, these prothesis-like objects adapt to the human body’s shapes and give the audience the opportunity to interact. Objects thus become opportunities, with art becoming a situation. West’s oeuvre breaks boundaries, connects art with life, and has inspired multiple generations of artists. This presentation pays homage to one who removed art from its pedestal to place it in the thick of life.

ALBERTINA, VIENNA Arnulf Rainer numbers among post-1945 Austrian and international art’s most significant and uncompromising personalities. This artist, who was born in Baden (near Vienna) in 1929 and passed away in Upper Austria in late 2025, left an indelible mark on international art history as an innovator who spent over seven decades probing the outer limits of painting. From the very beginning of his artistic career, fired on by his resolute resistance against all of National Socialism’s brutal restrictions, Rainer consistently strove for independence and autonomy. It was with his radical ‘overpaintings’ of the 1950s that he became known internationally and rose to occupy an important place in the post-1945 artistic pantheon. These works testify impressively to his personal stance as an artist, which defied all conventions. It was a group of photographic (self-)portraits, his late-1960s ‘soliloquies in front of the camera,’ that gave rise to the fascinating series Face Farces—impressive examples of which clearly show just how broad a range of approaches to images’ manipulation and reworking he employed, not to mention the intensity and dynamism of the

Paintings of monumental beauty and power convey histories and knowledge passed down through many generations. The breadth and diversity of Australian First Nations art stand at the heart of this exhibition, bringing together works by artists and artist collectives from Papunya, Utopia, Balgo, Warmun, and beyond. Among them is Emily Kam Kngwarray (1910–1996), one of its most internationally renowned figures. She began painting on canvas only in her late 70s, creating an extraordinarily prolific and wide-ranging body of work in the final eight years of her life. The exhibition draws on the ALBERTINA Museum’s unique and extensive holdings of Australian art, encompassing some 100 artistic positions. The collection was most recently augmented by a generous donation from collectors Elisabeth Bähr and Lindsay Frost in honor of the museum’s 250th anniversary. Works by artists such as Destiny Deacon and Tracey Moffatt further expand the presentation, underscoring the remarkable variety of artistic practices across Australia.