13 May KATHERINA OLSCHBAUR
Today’s story takes inspiration from my first live encounter with Katherina Olschbaur ‘s paintings, which I had only admired online up until that point. As much as I praise social media for enabling me to discover artists from all over the world, I always highlight the importance of actually seeing the artwork up close, whenever it’s possible. Of course a good photo of a painting has a powerful visual impact, but you should consider it a teaser. The emotion and experience of finally being in the same room with the artwork is immeasurable and it is one of the aspects I treasure the most in my life.
The opportunity to finally see live the Austrian artist’s artworks came last autumn with the My Kingdom and a Horse exhibition on view at the Nicodim Gallery in Bucharest, featuring Katherina Olschbaur and Dominique Fung. I acknowledge that this gallery has a special place in my heart. Our trips to the Nicodim Gallery are rather cyclical – there is always that chaotic traffic we have to manage in order to get there, that feeling of stepping into a whole different dimension when you encounter the aged Communist architecture of Combinatul Fondului Plastic, but once the Gallery’s door opens it’s always a signal we have arrived into an oasis of contemporary art, the one that sparks conversations, the type of art you revel in for a long time, the type you’d wish to admire again and again.
I feel the main exhibition space at Nicodim can be a real challenge to fill, because it’s an extraordinary space, with incredibly high ceiling, and it’s just the right place to be able to showcase large paintings, but it takes really strong art to capture your complete attention. Both Katherina Olschbaur and Dominique Fung master this craft. When I first stepped up inside that day, I felt I was in front of monumental painting.
We all have our own reference system when it comes to first meeting an artwork. For me, it’s simple words that came running through my mind as I try to grasp what made me fall in love. The connection I had with Dom’s Arc was instant, I was fascinated by the dominating pinks and blues, the horses, the woman facing away from our view. The second instinct was to finally run close and see the way color is applied to the canvas, and all the textures you can only try to imagine when you’re looking at a photo. The artist credits the relocation to Los Angeles for inspiring her to use such radiant shades¹, and I felt it creates such an electrifying atmosphere.
There is another aspect of the artist’s work that I’ve always found fascinating. I actually became interested in art in my early teenage years when I discovered Renaissance painting, so I will always have a soft spot for the rivetting fusion of drama, sensuality, lust and Catholic references. Katherina Olschbaur manages to include such complex dynamics into her artworks, while also highlighting her interest in mythology, Baroque, historical painting.
Katherina Olschbaur, Black Glove, 2020
As seen in Dom’s Arc, horses are recurrent in her oeuvre (she did, in fact, dedicate a whole exhibition around them), although the manner of portrayal varies from exuding total freedom, to draping them around human figures, or even juxtaposing elements from their form into different characters.
Horse Creep, from the show Horses at Nicodim Gallery, 2018
Into the Open, 2019
Weeping Horses, part of The Divine Hermaphrodite
For her most recent show at Nicodim Los Angeles, Live Flesh, Katherina Olschbaur told her own story of the famous failed seduction of Adonis, only her Venus seems more determined, with cues we take from her body language and the disposition of her muscles, while Adonis’s hair in the wind and his waist hint more to a feminine allure. Besides the vivacious shades of orange, Picnic of Two Suns has a bit of a surreal feeling which you can encounter through her artist practice – you become acutely alert, trying to distinguish the elements which masterfully blend and grasp the concepts hidden in dynamic tones.
After Venus and Adonis , Live Flesh, Nicodim Los Angeles
Picnic of Two Suns, Live Flesh, Nicodim Los Angeles
Just as I felt when I first saw My Kingdom and a Horse, after researching through photos of all her exhibitions the first word that comes into my mind is empowering. It’s truly refreshing to see women depicted thriving, sensuality fearlessly in the open, a contemporary take on mythology, so many necessary subjects such as the third sex – all laid out in the open, marvelously depicted on canvas.
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