Selected Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) EightMinutes,Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); (Upcoming) Bertram Hasenauer, Kunsthalle Memmingen, Germany (2023); (Upcoming), EBENSPERGER, Vienna, Austria (2023); Shared Memory, Thomas Fox Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany(2022); Fine Delay, Galerie Anja Knoess, Cologne, Germany (2022); Tandem Distiller, Galerie Anja Knoess, Cologne, Germany (2021);Fine Delay, Galerie Anja Knoess, Cologne, Germany (2022); Other days, Galerie Schloß Wiespach, Hallein, Austria (2019); Bertram Hasenauer, Das Bilderhaus Sammlung Dr. Neumann, Bad Aibling, Germany (2019); Smoking in the woods, Galerie Z, Bergenz, Austria (2019); Empty Pools, Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany(2018); Dew, Galerie Brusberg, Berlin, Germany (2018); Painting and Drawing, Galerie Brusberg, Berlin, Germany (2018);Untitled, Artist in Residence Helvetica Basel, Switzerland (2017); The pines were tapped for resin, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Salzburg, Salzburg. Austria (2016); You must have wanted the world to know, Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany (2015).

 

Selected Group Exhibitions include Darkness is called darkness, Ebensperger, Vienna, Austria (2023); Tomorrow is Tomorrow is Tomorrow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2023); Kunst. Leben. Leidenschaft, Museum Angerlehner, Wels, Austria (2022); Fashion images/ Art clothing. Photography, Painting and fashion 1900 till now, Berlin, Germany (2022); Between the Lines, Galerie Anja Knoess, Cologne, Germany (2021); Another Creature, Silvis Contemporary New York, USA (2021); Freedom and Independence, Ebensperger, Vienna, Austria (2021); Another Figure, Silvis Contemporary New York, USA (2021); ‘Wilde Kindheit’ Kunstmuseum Lentos, Linz, Austria (2021); Drawn City, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2020); Between, Galerie Sophia Vonier, Salzburg, Austria(2020);In common, Pinzgau, Kunsthaus Nexus, Saalfelden, Austria (2020);The Tip of the Iceberg, Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria (2019); When I close my eyes in the dark, Galerie Sophia Vonier, Salzburg, Austria (2019); Art purchases, Salzburg 2015-17, Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, Austria (2019) .

Bertram Hasenauer has been awarded with various prestigious prizes including Studio grant Paliano/Rome (2019); ‘Artist in Residence Basel’ (2017). Grand Art Prize of the State of Salzberg (2011); Georg Eisler Prize for Painting (2008); ART ARWARD 2006 Advancement Prize for Painting, Strabag Vienna (2006); Anton Faistauer Recognition Prize for Painting, Salzburg and the State Grant for Fine Arts, Federal Chancellery Vienna, Department Art (2005); Studio grant Kraków, Federal Chancellery Vienna, Department of Art (1999); Atelier Exchange Program Salzburg, Berlin, Germany (1998) and the Working Grant, Parlament Vienna, Department Art, Austria (1987). Hasenauer’s work can be found in prominent collections internationally which include Los Angeles County Museum, USA; Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin; Galerie Belvedere, Wien; Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz, Graz; Landesgalerie am Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum; Linz Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna; Strabag Kunstforum, Vienna; Österreichische National Bank, Vienna; Salzburger Landesregierung, Salzburg; Stadt Wien, Vienna; Artothek des Bundes BKA, Vienna; Kupferstichkabinett Akademieder Bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna; Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz; Salzburg Museum, Salzburg; Bunker Artspace Museum (USA) and the RO2 Art Collection (USA).

Hasenauer originally trained as a sculptor and before that a jewellery maker and has carried with him into painting both a deep respect of material and process. He tends to use fashion photographs from magazines as the starting point for his works, which he re-photographs, prints out and arranges into collages before photographing them again. Through the painting process – the slow application of very thin layers of glaze on a white-primed canvas or the precise drawing of a silhouette in ​​silverpoint or glass brush on a black surface – he further distances the image from its original context to create what he calls ‘an idea of a figure.’ In almost all of the paintings, this spectral being fixes the viewer with an impenetrable stare. Even in Eight minutes and nine seconds, in which the figure’s head is turned away from us, seemingly dissolving into white, we still feel their gaze – or is it that we desire it?

 

The title for this latest series of works was inspired by Hasenauer’s discovery that it takes exactly eight minutes for our eyes to see, or rather filter out the colour blue as it travels from the sun. This idea of light disappearing to reveal something new resonated with his approach to creating an image. In the ‘light’ paintings, his figures appear soft focus as if they are melting into the background – at times, the contour of their face is barely distinguishable from the white that surrounds them – while the clothes that they wear are opaque and often vividly coloured. They, too, alternately conceal and reveal the body, the creases and shadows of the fabric are suggestive of movement, the softness of flesh. This is perhaps most obvious in Eight minutes and fourteen seconds, the only ‘non-portrait’ in the exhibition and the most overtly sculptural image. Here, we are presented with a cropped view of a figure from the shoulders to just below their hips. A haze of blue seeps in from the top of the canvas, fading in intensity as it reaches the bottom, though the figure seems to have soaked up the hue that has the effect of both softening and defining the silhouette.

The ‘darker’ works, by contrast, rely on the interaction of light and the physical positioning of the viewer in space to veil or expose the image. While the other paintings draw us in with bold colour or precisely drawn details – the arch of an eyebrow, the sunken groove above the figure’s lips – these works create an shift our perspective. Here we must allow our eyes to become accustomed to the dark before incandescent features gradually begin to emerge – the soft glow of skin, a sharply pleated colour, the flashing whites of eyes looking back at us. It is through this deep contemplation that we also begin to understand the making of the image – how the colour emerges through the application of multiple layers, how innumerable lines drawn with a silverpoint pen render a precise drawing.

 

Unnerving though they may seem on a first glance, these are works that invite calm and concentration. They do not seek to impress meaning on the viewer, but instead ask us to reflect on our personal engagement with each image.