Overview
Karen Holländer
Photo © Daniela Beranek, Vienna

"My focus is on depicting everyday objects that can also be seen as metaphors for certain circumstances of human existence."

Karen Holländer is a great storyteller, an illusionist, a painter who subtly displays the surreal reference and wit in her paintings. For what at first glance appears to be a perfectly depicted pansy turns out to be a structure with an overlong stem, a stem that becomes entangled and lies tangled on the ground just like a garden hose, and whose end manifests itself in the shadow of the flower. Shadow and flower are one, connected by green entanglements. In earlier paintings, Holländer called these symbioses "liaisons". A romantically transfigured view of the inseparable - but infinitely tangled - bond.

 

It is these everyday objects that Karen Holländer always has in her sights and with which she populates her pictures. They are fantastically beautiful works, full of sophistication and stories, and not at all infrequently they leave questions unanswered that do not inevitably belong answered, for the beauty and effect would not be countered by the answer. The answer to why four discarded gutters ooze colour - yellow, green, blue and pink - what would it give us? Nothing! Because the pictures are perfect enough as it is!

Works
Biography
Photo © Martin Schnur
Photo © Martin Schnur

Karen Holländer lives and works in Vienna

born 1964 in Tübingen, Germany

  

1983/84 Study stay in Paris, Académie Peninghen

1984-89 Study of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

 

Publications

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2016  Body & Soul, Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg

2015  Nach Picasso - auf Spurensuche in der jungen österreichischen Kunst, 

           Forum Frohner, Krems

2014  Die andere Sicht - Sammlerin und Künstlerin, Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg

2013  Karen Holländer, Exhibition catalogue, bechter kastowsky gallery

2013  2. Biennale of Painting, Vienna Calling, Zagreb

2013  Wo Kunst sich sammelt - eine Privatsammlung wird öffentlich, 

           Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim

2006  Österreich: 1900-2000, Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg

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Books and illustrations for books

 

2007  Ach hätte - könnte - wäre ich, Karen Holländer, Residenz-Verlag (City of Vienna Recognition Award)

2006  Das Geschenk des Feuervogels, Käthe Recheis, Dachs–Verlag

2004  Bulemanns Haus, Theodor Storm, Verlag der Provinz

2004  Winzig gross und riesig klein, Karen Holländer, Dachs-Verlag

1999  Nimm mich mit, großer Adler, Käthe Recheis, Gabriel-Verlag

1997  Die Stimme des Donnervogels, Käthe Recheis, Gabriel-Verlag (was chosen among the most beautiful books in Austria)

1994  Wolfsaga, Käthe Recheis, Herder-Verlag

Exhibitions
Events
Art Fairs