Welcome

My work focuses on trauma recovery, introspection and the human urge of finding a place in the world: fragmented stories for fractured minds.

I predominantly focus on figurative strategies in drawing, painting and code. I programmed videogames (at Rockstar Games) before studying fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, which influenced the topic of my PhD thesis (painting and digital technologies).  I live and work in Vienna/Austria, and collaborate with galleries in Austria, Germany and Spain.

Next to my art practice, I am active in various projects that aim to make art world dynamics transparent — and more welcoming: whether in regular talk and networking meetings (“JOMO – Joy of Missing Out”), a podcast (“Kunst und Klischee”), my YouTube channel (“On Doubt in Creative Practices”, which accumulated over 8 million views and over 60k watch minutes by 2022), or in various lectures and workshops.

I curated over thirty exhibitions since co-managing the transmedial art space mo.ë, established an active writing practice (check out my “Handbook for Emerging Artists — over fourty chapters are online, with over 50k views as of 2022), and teach at Art School Vienna and at the virtual art school “Pushing Colored Dirt”.

I held lectures at workshops at places like the Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm), Gage Academy of Art (Seattle), University of Northern Colorado, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, or the New Rochelle High School (New York).

Fragmented Visual Storytelling

I’m a visual storyteller. I create open-minded potentials whose interpretations grow with their viewers. Fragments to create emotions. Atmospherics.

 

I studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna — in the classes of Daniel Richter, Harun Farocki and Gunter Damisch (2006-2011).

To further dive into storytelling in contemporary media,  I wrote a Doctoral Thesis (PhD) about “Painting and digital technologies” (Elisabeth von Samsonow, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, 2011-2015).

Together with my game development background (Rockstar Games, 2000-2006), these form the basis of my artistic practice.

Digital Analog

I blend traditional painting and drawing practices with multi-layered digital processes.

 

The final works often don’t show their underlying digital roots, which include randomized generative algorithms, a robotic drawing device and the development of a custom image abstraction software. This lets the works feature a mode of figuration that’s natively based in geometric abstraction – while keeping an analog exterior.

 

Coding and Interactivity

My bag of tricks includes Sandy Noble’s Polargraph drawing machine, the Processing prototyping environment, and “Geometries Everywhere“, my generative image and video abstraction software.

 

In development since 2015, it offers real-time glitches, numerous line tracing algorithms, creation of 3d geometry from 2d images, production of depth/space dioramas, interpretation of topology through Delaunay triangulation and Voronoi diagrams, video/vectors or high-res pixelations export  and WASD controls to navigate the virtual scenes.

Projects

I’ve been involved in a variety of projects — using various media, collaborators and ideas:

Kunst und Klischee is a German-language podcast by Katharina C. Herzog (“Kevo”) and me. We lead down-to-earth interviews with people from all artistic backgrounds. New episodes are released biweekly. Listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Here’s a list of all episodes.

JOMO (“Joy of Missing Out”) is a monthly platform to discuss and network about often unspoken art world dynamics, managed by Paula Marschalek, Julia Bugram and me. JOMO is online-first, and live-streams its events via Zoom and Facebook Live. The videos are archived and stay accessible: enjoy missing out.

The Handbook for Emerging Artists is my attempt at ordering the chaos that accompanies being an artist. I’ll gradually begin to roll out its content.

 

On Doubt (2017-2018) is my YouTube channel on creativity. It features short documentaries based on interviews with unique creators from all sorts of fields; I started it after realizing that I wouldn’t curate physical exhibitions anymore. The project also has an accompanying website.

 

Beyond Mimesis (2013-2015) was a “research & discourse platform investigating contemporary painting conditions“. I started it when working on my PhD thesis, and used it to publish analyses of various emerging painters, with a close focus on Austrian artists of roughly my generation.
It’s a Tumblr site that’s entirely safe to read, yet sometimes shows an (invalid) content warning.

Danis Welt is a German-language YouTube channel for kids aged 2-99. The project started with the Corona pandemic, and featured a life drawing made by me, for each episode. 

Further involvements:

  • Workshops & Presentations: I held presentations at various institutes about art, art writing, creative processes, the Polargraph plotter and teach the life drawing and art history courses at Art School Vienna. I also teach at the virtual art school Pushing Colored Dirt.

  • Curating (2011-2017): I curated various exhibitions, mostly focussing on emerging painting and videogame aesthetics