Acrylic on canvas
200 x 200 cm


Heimo Zobernig is very much of the belief that “what you see is what you get.” Drawing on the foundations of modernism, post-modernism, Geometric Abstractionism and Minimalism, his main formats are sculpture, painting and video. His work seeks to destabilize with an approach that is both playful and inquisitive. 

In Untitled (REAL/EGAL) the artist subverts the 20th century traditions of grid and monochrome painting, by introducing the words “real” and “egal” (meaning irrelevant in German) into the work. Here, the geometric areas almost outstrip the meaning of the words whose legibility becomes difficult. Yet, the definition of the words conveys a self-reflective riff on their own implications. Dating back to the late-1980s, Zobernig has explored the opticality of color in his work as well, frequently drawing on the chroma-key colors of video technology to create a “sensual” experience. The composition of the spatial relationships and tones within the canvas result in a work that is both lightly comical and highly aesthetic, while being neither purely functional nor visual. – Alicia Reuter


*1958 in Mauthen, Austria | Living and working in Vienna, Austria