Exhibition by Nick Oberthaler & Co in Bad Ischl

On view until the end of September 2024

For the exhibition in Bad Ischl, Nick Oberthaler has developed a new series of works that refer to the visual identity of his hometown. At the heart of his abstract paintings is the exploration of his visual and spatial experiences. Using the compositional methods of abstraction, he creates new paintings that intertwine modes of representation and design elements of flags with the processuality of painting.

Lise Lebleux from Vesoul Haute-Saône works with acoustics and field recordings and creates sound topologies of different spaces. Her works have recently been heard at radiophrenia in Glasgow, *Duu Radio in Paris and Montez Press Radio in New York. For the staircase of the Bad Ischl post office building, the artist has designed the sound installation sounds of the valley. The artist's goal is to manage the distance between the highest and lowest points of the post office building by placing one loudspeaker on the top floor and one on the ground floor. In this way, the entire interior of the post office building is flooded with different sounds.

In her photographic and filmic works, Clara Lemercier Gemptel deals with the construction of gender and identity as well as the relationship between architecture and the human body. Her short film TEAM SPIRIT was shown at the Si cinema Festival at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among others. The artist, who lives and works in Lille and Paris, shows a current photo series on the subject of mining in the Salzkammergut in the exhibition #000000 (Black) – #FFD700 (Gold) – #228B22 (Forest Green), thus referring to an important part of the region's identity. On display are photographs of two sand pits near Bad Ischl, shots from the inside of the Baumit lime works and dolls depicting miners in different eras and exhibited in the Hallstatt World Heritage Museum.

Ugo Sébastião is a painter who investigates material aspects of panel painting as well as its historical and technological conditions. The artist has had solo exhibitions at the Alice Amati Gallery, London and the pal project, Paris. In 2022 he participated in the Artist in Residence program at Palazzo Monti, Brescia. During his artist residency in Bad Ischl, a thematic focus emerged: namely the fascinating dichotomy between Protestant temples and the opulent embrace of Catholic Baroque architecture. From this, Ugo Sébastião developed his painting series in between, which can be seen in the post office building in Bad Ischl.

Nick Oberthaler was born in Bad Ischl in 1981. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and was Artist in Residence at WIELS, Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels (2011–2012). His work has been shown internationally, including at the KIOSK, Ghent, the Museo Andersen/GNAM, Rome, the Institut d'Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Since 2020, he has been Professor of Painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France. His works are in institutional and private collections, including the Musée d'art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne, Rochechouart, France; MAC, Lyon; 21er Haus/Belvedere, Vienna; Lentos Linz and Caldic Collection/Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands.

His artistic practice explores the function of abstract painting as a medium for visual and spatial experiences. His works refer to visual codes and parameters that Oberthaler borrows from image theory, digital space, and institutional contexts. For his exhibition in Bad Ischl as part of the Capital of Culture year, the artist has created a new series of small-format paintings that refer to the visual identity of the city, specifically its flag colors. In the conceptual reference to the artistic work of role models such as Blinky Palermo, Marthe Wéry or Peter Joseph, his paintings, made with acrylic paint on canvas or paper, are formal-abstract compositions that evoke associations with the motif of the window. The saying that painting is like a window to the world is attributed to the architectural theorist Leon Battista Alberti and led to the development of perspective as a central element of pictorial construction in the Renaissance. Oberthaler plays with the limits of painting: Where does the work begin and end? The investigation of the relationship between frame and pictorial plane as well as their reciprocal interchangeability combine the paintings into an installation sequence and thus allow them to enter into a dialogue with the exhibition space.

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