Nora Steiner and Anna Witt at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen

Artists: Nora Steiner and Anna Witt

Exhibition title: Totale, Die Suche nach dem letzten Grund

Venue: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Gallen, Switzerland

Date: March 5 – May 22, 2016

Photography: Gunnar Meier, Stefan Jaeggi, images copyright and courtesy the artists and Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen

The exhibitions bring together under one roof the works of two very different artists. Nora Steiner (*1981, Zurich) is concerned with painting perceptual phenomena while making use of the basic principles of painting. Following recipes from the Renaissance she paints in thin, coloured layers using old master glaze techniques on a chalk base. At Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, she is presenting a work cycle that she has worked on over the last five years. It is made up of large-format canvases that the artist slowly intensified with coloured glazes in technically elaborate processes. Starting from her interest in black holes, Nora Steiner approaches the unknown and the invisible in a painterly manner. The result is spectacular pictures that develop a strong spatial presence despite their simplicity. An artist’s booklet was published on occasion of the exhibition. The favoured tools of Anna Witt (*1981, Wasserburg am Inn, Germany) are performance and video. The artist uses them to examine socio-political subjects and how the body, its sphere of action and its movements also always carry a message. In St. Gallen, Witt is showing two of her most recent works, amongst them the project Durch Wände gehen (Going through Walls, 2015). On the basis of two individual experiences of fleeing she looks for analogies between current and historical events that have significantly changed the lives of the protagonists – one a Syrian who fled to Saxony, and one a German who fled from the former GDR. In the video work Gemeinschaft ohne Eigenschaften (Community without Properties, 2015) the artist observes a group who has coincidentally gathered in a room and the behaviour of the participants in this enforced community over time. Especially for the exhibition at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, the artist produced the new video work Die Suche nach dem letzten Grund (Infinite Regress, 2016). It was realised in collaboration with the debating club of the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and examines the sensitive question: “Why not talk about the truth?”

Nora Steiner (*1981, Zurich/CH) lives and works in Zurich. She studied Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (2003-2007), where she also graduated with a Master of Arts in Fine Arts (2013-2016). Solo exhibitions (selection): Sollbruchstelle 03, Zurich (2015); message salon, Perla Mode, Zurich (2013). Group exhibitions (selection): Museum Bärengasse, Zurich (2014), Cité des Arts, Paris, Zementfabrik Areal, Brunnen; Dienstgebäude, Zurich (2012); Freiraum Quartier 21 International, Vienna (with Küng- Caputo) (2011); Löwenbräu-Areal Zurich (2010).

Anna Witt (*1981, Wasserburg am Inn/DE) lives and works in Vienna. Until 2008 she studied with Asta Gröting, Magdalena Jetelova and Monica Bonvicini in Munich and Vienna. Solo exhibitions (selection): Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt; 8. Salon, Hamburg (2015); Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin; Stacion, Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina, Kosovo (2014); Marabouparken, Sundbyberg (Stockholm/SE)(2013); Magazin 4, Bregenzer Kunstverein, AT (2011). Group exhibitions (selection): Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig; Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz; West Space, Melbourne; 1. Vienna Biennale, MAK, Wien; OFF-Biennale, Budapest; Visual Culture Research Center, Kiev, UA (2015); Kunstverein Wolfsburg, DE; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2014); Austrian Cultural Forum, New York; MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei; MoBy – Museums of Bat Yam, ISR; NGBK, Berlin (2013); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, CH; Salzburger Kunstverein. AT (2012); 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2010); Manifesta 7 (2008).