Martina Steckholzer
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Martina Steckholzer (born 1974, South Tyrol, Italy) is an artist based in Vienna.
She has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including “Superflat” at Dreizehnzwei in Vienna, “Block” at ApexArt [1] in New York, “The Triumph of Painting” at the Saatchi Gallery [2] in London and “Extention Turn” at the Austrian Cultural Forum [3] in Tokyo. She is represented by Wilkinson Gallery [4] in London.
Martina Steckholzer’s paintings appear at first to be purely abstract images, rendered often in pale greys with areas of black, the pictures have only the barest relationship to actual physical places or objects – the fact that Steckholzer bases her paintings on stills from video footage is quite surprising based on their first impressions. Steckholzer takes a video camera around various art-based places: galleries, studios, art fairs etc, in order to capture bits and pieces of visual information otherwise overlooked. The frames chosen for transformation into paintings are the ones that are the least ‘obvious’ looking, that aid the transition to abstract picture. By making paintings of unrecognisable images of ignored spaces from art-related venues Steckholzer creates delicate works with obvious skill and beauty as well as highlighting the irony of visual laziness in settings which are formed entirely on the need for heightened awareness and keenness of vision.
