Untitled, 2022
Oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches (200 x 200 cm)
Heimo Zobernig was born in 1958 in Mauthen, Austria and now lives and works in Vienna. He has mined various art historical moments and movements, specifically Modernism, post-Modernism, Geometric Abstraction, and Minimalism with a rigorous and interrogatory spirit. His often playful approach also includes a keen and abiding affinity with modes of display, set design, and theatricality.
Zobernig studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, and later at the University of Applied Arts, both in Vienna. After two visiting professorships in Germany, he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna since 1999. In 1997, he received the Prize for Fine Art by the City of Vienna.
In 2015, Zobernig represented Austria at the Venice Biennale. He was also included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 1988 and 2001. He has additionally participated in documenta, Kassel, Germany (1992 & 1997); Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997); Istanbul Biennial (1992); and Skulpturenpark Cologne (2001 & 2007).
One person exhibitions of his work have taken place at Kunsthalle Basel; Kunsthalle Zurich; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Kunsthaus Graz, Austria; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Mudam, Luxembourg; mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; and Secession, Vienna, among others.
In 2016, Thomas Borgmann donated a major collection of works by Zobernig as part of his gift to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam – the second largest in the institution’s history. His pieces are also included in the collections of the Albertina, Vienna; Art Institute of Chicago; Belvedere, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MAMCO Musée d´Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; Mudam, Luxembourg; Museion, Bolzano, Italy; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Madrid & Vienna; and Schaulager, Basel, among others.
Since the 1980s, Zobernig has coolly unpacked modernism as formal language and as social ideology, reminding us that design (gallery architecture included) is never neutral.
Excerpt from Joshua Decter’s “Hemo Zobernig: Friedrich Petzel Gallery,” Artforum, Summer 2008.
