Page 238 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - volume IV

Dalia Blauensteiner’s paintings, graphics, and installations reveals itself only at second glance as a floating plastic
bear eloquent witness to her artistic and technical savvy, carpet and is reminiscent of Vexierbilder, works of art with

allowing the painter, for example, to create the illusion of not immediately obvious messages, as they were already
movement in her abstract oil paintings. One example of made in the Middle Ages to practice social criticism.
this is the cycle Journey (2018/19), which the artist showed The viewer’s perceptive faculty is also challenged in the
for the first time as a representative of the association cycle Breath, 2018, three acrylic paintings that show

raumgreifend as part of the group exhibition schwarz- cushion-like formations with vegetal structures. Here,
weiß aber auch grau at the NÖ DOK - the Lower Austrian the grasses and leaves find no protective bubble in which
Documentation Center for Modern Art - in St. Pölten. The to grow and flourish; rather, they are suffocated in the
four paintings, which are now part of the solo exhibition seal, having no air to breathe. Today, the book of nature

one, resemble blurred landscapes, like those you see flying announces less about creation than about man’s ruthless
by out of the window of a fast-moving train or car out of the treatment of it. When empathically examined, the images
corner of your eye. If one strolls past them, this effect is also take the breath away of those who look at them.
intensified. Blauensteiner’s portrait, in which the canvas is One of Dalia Blauensteiner’s favorite books is Being

treated in such a way that the supporting surface becomes One (1990, currently out of print) by Richard Bach, first
the ghostly, shimmering incarnate of the crouching figure published in 1988 under the title One in New York. The
(Sorrow, 2010), also testifies to the almost old-masterly book had a strong influence on the artist, which is why
mastery of her craft. she named her solo exhibition after it. It describes a

For all their formal expertise, however, Blauensteiner’s journey that ends with the realization that we are all
works are first and foremost about content, about the one - with our past and future, with this world and all its
insights the artist gains from her engagement with texts people, with possible other worlds, that our current life
and from her study of nature. Human nature, too. is only one possibility among countless others (blurb) and

Many of her works are critical of society and address inspired Dalia Blauensteiner to paint The Law (2018), a
mankind’s irresponsible and short-sighted treatment of reproduction of which also graces the exhibition poster.
nature. Exemplary of this are the installation Patterns of For the artist, love and justice are ultimately the law that
Social Figurations and the cycle Exploitation (2017/2018), binds us all - even if this is not understood or even followed

which unites five paintings with varying degrees of
by everyone.
TOP CONTEMPOR ARY ARTISTS abstraction and of varying subtlety. Thus, the at first art and cultural scientist, University of Linz
Dr. Phil. Barbara Margarethe Eggert,
dance-like seeming network of lines Exploitation V (Sea)

THE FLIGHT, TRIPTYCH, 2014 OIL ON CANVAS 19.6X59 IN. | 50X150 CM.

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