Past Residents
Past Resident2014: Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of Austria
Tobias Pils
Tobias Pils’s working method is characterized by the fact that when beginning a new piece of work he attempts to forget all past works, and engages with a motif. This motif can be anything from a traditional allegory to an abstract rhythm or harmony. His pictorial language as developed in recent years combines expressive elements with geometric structures such as grids, but never quite cuts the link with representation despite its dominant tendency towards abstraction. Intuition, inspiration and individuality are criteria relevant to Pils’s painterly oeuvre, and form the basis of his understanding of painting as a language and means of expression.
Tobias Pils (born 1971 in Linz) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. His selected exhibitions and projects include: Secession, Vienna, 2013; Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, 2012; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York City, 2011; Tenda Gialla, Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb, 2010; Beijing Biennale, NAMOC Museum, Beijing; Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul; Gironcoli Museum, Herberstein; Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2008; Tresor BA Kunstforum, Vienna and Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, 2007. Pils lives and works in Vienna.
Tobias Pilsc, Staircase - Secession, 2013, Glaze painting on ceramic tiles. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Secession, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 59 1/2 x 59 1/10 in. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 70 4/5 x 67 in. Courtesy of the artist
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 90 1/2 x 72 4/5 in. Courtesy of the artist
Residents from Austria
Past Resident2014: Mondriaan Fund
Maura Biava
Maura Biava employs analytic geometry to achieve her artistic ends. Working with a mathematician who translates equations into graphic representations, she searches for forms that resonate or evoke specific emotional or pneumonic responses. She then names that form, combines that form with others, to produce concrete, semantic/poetic objects, drawings, photographs and installations. Artists have long been attracted to the hidden geometries in nature. Biava starts with the geometries and generates strange, new and compelling natural forms.
Maura Biava (born 1970, Reggio Emilia, Italy) is based in Amsterdam. She graduated in 1992 from the Academy of Brera in Milan, then in 1999 from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Biava has exhibited all over the world including Cooling Out, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel; Going Dutch, Museum of New Art, Pontiac; New Photography from the NetherlandsCornerhouse, Manchester; Chronos & Kairos, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel; Drawing Typologies, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; A’dam & Eve, De Appel, Amsterdam; Museo Zauli, Faenza; Doride/Ultramarine, Photo Museum Amsterdam and On the Edge of Vision, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Maura Biava and Richard Schur
June 17, 2014
Maura Biava, Trinity - Fired Abstraction, 2010, Ceramic and wood, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist
Maura Biava, Trinity - Informing Abstraction, 2011, Collage, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist
Maura Biava, Trinity - Informing Abstraction, 2011, Ceramic, wood, paper, marble, stone, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist
Maura Biava, Abstract Flora #10, 2014, Photography, 12 × 8 in. (30.48 × 20.32 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Maura Biava, Judy's Revolutions - in collaboration with Dike Blair, 2011, Mixed media on paper, 18 × 12 in. (45.72 × 30.48 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Residents from The Netherlands
Past Resident2014: KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Axel Töpfer
Axel Töpfer uses photographs, text and objects to construct imaginary events through an extension of narrative space. The work is structured so that the viewer performs the movement to assemble each story out of its parts. Töpfer continuously searches for instruments of inspiration such as: a late completion about space on Fotodinamismo Futurista by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Secret Notes by Josef Albers and On Dimension Zero or Why Structural Cinema is Narrative by George Maciunas. He believes magic can be achieved through stuttering and repetition.
Axel Töpfer (born 1977 in Königs Wusterhausen) is Director of the Laboratory for Visibility Hy Brasil since 2012, Co-founder of the network Videoklub (2004) and a member of zeitgenossen since 2000. He studied media art, photography and typography at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and sculpture and film at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Vienna. Töpfer works on the island of Hy Brasil and is living in Ulthar.
Axel Töpfer, Mitsubishi Dock Yard Nagasaki, 2010, Installation of 81 postcards. Courtesy of the artist and Photomuseum Braunschweig
Axel Töpfer, To Say I am still alive i wonder if you are, 2008, Installation of 51 postcards. Courtesy of the artist and Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
Axel Töpfer, Lieses Haus Horcht, 2013, Narrative Installation. Courtesy of the artist and Wolkenhof Murrhardt
Axel Töpfer, Neko Yashiki, 2012, Narrative Installation and Nishinomiya Funasaka Biennale. Courtesy of the artist
Axel Töpfer, A Landrara, 2013, Structural narrative of 8 pictures. Courtesy of the artist
