Heimo Zobernig - Buy or sell works
1958, Mauthen (Austria)
Painter, sculptor, performance artist and filmmaker, Heimo Zobernig is one of the best known and most versatile artistic personalities in contemporary Austria.
Born in 1958 in Mauthen, in the federal state of Carinthia, Zobernig studied at both the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Together with Can Yasargil and Ruth Labak, he presented his first private exhibition in Vienna’s Theobaldgasse in 1979. After completing his studies in 1994, Zobernik took up a one-year appointment as guest professor at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. In 1999, he obtained the post of Professor of Sculpture at the University of Fine Arts in Frankfurt. Since 2000, Zobernig has been Professor of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. He has received many distinctions in recognition of his contributions to cultural life - including the Gold Decoration of Honour for services to the City of Vienna (2009), and the Austrian Friedrich Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts in 2010.
At the beginning of his artistic career Zobernig designed stage sets, took part in performance art, and shot film portraits. From the middle of the 1980s onwards he devoted himself to abstract painting and explored the interpretation of geometric mechanisms. During the 1990s, he frequently participated in artistic projects as a designer of communication spaces. The topic of ‘colour’ is of such major importance for the him that he has developed his own theory of colour. Another unique feature of his multi-faceted œuvre is that the standard description for most of his works is ‘Untitled’. Using materials such as cardboard, Styrofoam and concrete, Zobernig draws attention to the universal ephemerality of phenomena. His works are presented in public spaces as well as in large museums, galleries, art fairs and internationally acknowledged festivals. In 2015, Zobernig was Austria’s ambassador at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, among other things, the prolifically active Zobernig was responsible for the redesign of the interior of the Mariendom in Linz.
In 1998, in collaboration with his artistic colleague Franz West, he designed four colourful chairs, to which he gave the working title ‘Freiherr von Knigge-Sessel’ [‘Baron Easy-chair’]. These chairs, together with a table of his design topped with blue glass, were auctioned for €42,500 as part of a ‘Design First’ auction at Dorotheum on 20 June 2017. Other works by Zobernig including pictures and sculptures, have also regularly enjoyed success at Dorotheum auctions.