Modern & Contemporary Art Exhibitions in Wien

Over six months and throughout all its exhibition spaces, Kunsthalle Wien will present the largest survey of the Viennese contemporary art scene to be organised by the institution in over a decade. Sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, performance and video by over 50 artists will be presented within an exhibition that focuses on new commissions and works that have not previously been exhibited in Vienna. The exhibition takes its title from a survey first presented at the Kunsthalle in 2000, continuing and developing a format that seeks to offer a perspective on the dynamic, transnational and culturally diverse communities of artists living and working in Vienna today. The exhibition will be accompanied by a year-long public programme. A new publication with commissioned texts on each artist and transcripts of conversations between curators, artists and critics living and working in Vienna will be published in German and English.

The Art of the Brick is an exhibition featuring the works of LEGO certified professional Nathan Sawaya. The show presents over 100 artworks made exclusively from LEGO bricks, including a 20-foot-long T-Rex skeleton and a life-size human figure made of 80,000 bricks.

The Museum of Modern Art, Vienna (MUMOK) is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Vienna, Austria.

A new film entitled Overt Listening forms the focus for Tiffany Sia’s (b. 1988, Hong Kong) first institutional solo exhibition in Austria. Set on the Kinmen Islands in Taiwan, just a few kilometers off the Chinese coast, the film critically examines the aftermath of the Cold War, highlighting the history of difficult and often imperceptible geopolitical tensions in the region of the Pacific Theater. Sia combines footage of historical sites such as military bunkers with landscape scenes of deserted beaches. This is accompanied by the sound of radio broadcasts and military exercises. Unfolding in a series of chapters in a spatial installation across the ground floor of Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier, the work mixes collected oral narratives, official histories and popular culture in an expansive, filmic essay. Tiffany Sia’s Overt Listening is co-produced with KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.

Magali Reus’ (b. 1981, Den Haag) meticulously fabricated sculptures incorporate diverse materials and artisanal techniques such as casting, forging, wicker weaving and embroidery alongside machine processes including plating, laser cutting and 3D printing. Her works often take the form of vessels that combine historical and contemporary references from fine arts, graphic and industrial design alongside the artist’s personal motifs. Examples include wall-mounted works that take the form of over-sized jam jars or objects that hybridise display vitrines with sections of tiled roofing or larger than life sardine tins that house mouse traps and dog baskets. The new works that she is preparing for her first solo exhibition in Austria make specific reference to the history of applied arts in Vienna by taking inspiration from different eras of street furniture, signage and other architectural details from the city. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with CAPC Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux.

Kunsthalle Wien will host the 23rd edition of the Kunsthalle Wien Preis exhibition. This seeks to both recognise and support the practices of emerging artists in Vienna by providing a bridge between academic study and professional practice. Organised by Kunsthalle Wien, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the prize is awarded annually by a jury of experts to a graduate from each of the universities. The artists receive a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz accompanied by a richly illustrated exhibition catalogue featuring commissioned texts will be published in German and English. The jury for the 2026 edition comprises the directors and representatives from the Kunsthalle and the two academies as well as Frederike Sperling Artistic Director, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich.