Painting Fragmented Stories for Fractured Minds

Welcome

My work focuses on resonance and emotions,
and the human urge of finding a place in the world.

In my art practice this results in works on the human condition, specifically on people in trauma recovery — using figurative strategies in drawing, painting and code. My work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in the US, France, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
In my art mediation practice this leads to projects empowering artists and other creatives, by organizing knowledge transfer and networking platforms in various formats.

Painting the Inside

My main goal when making art is to create something that sparks resonance; first within me, during the creation process. Then within viewers of the finished pieces. If my artworks don’t reach you emotionally, I did something wrong – or we simply don’t speak the same language.

My art shows people who want to find a place in the world. I eventually understood that this sentence applies to trauma survivors; so in addition to other aspects, my work is about individuals and their paths through trauma recovery – casting a wide, dim net around topics of consciousness: from dream interpretation to psychoanalysis, from individual to social and political dynamics. The works repeatedly focus on psychological symptoms: body dissociation, depersonalization, amnesia, fatigue, compulsions, etc.

Viewers are excluded from certain aspects of my paintings – like trauma survivors, who sometimes are denied
clear access to their bodies, memories and emotions

Such symptoms often cannot be clearly depicted apart from clichés, because they neither exist in, nor offer clear imagery: the truth of a person is not merely revealed by their surface. Certain of my works therefore appear to show everyday scenes: someone may be sleeping, pottering, planting, fishing; the images do not articulate the reason for these actions, or whether they are done consciously or subconsciously – but they often appear symbolically charged.

The sitter’s introspective gaze indicates an inner communication to which viewers cannot listen. In this respect, viewers tend to be excluded from certain aspects and dynamics of my works – like trauma survivors, who, due to dissociation, sometimes are denied clear access to their bodies, memories and emotions – to their lives.

Work Archive | News | Conscious Artist Membership | Handbook for Emerging Artists

About Me

I was a programmer before becoming an artist.

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.

I curated over thirty exhibitions since co-managing the transmedial art space mo.ë, and am the author of the ongoing “Handbook for Emerging Artists (over fourty chapters are online, with over 60k views as of 2023).

I hold lectures and workshops, most recently at “Klasse für Alle” at the University of Applied Arts — over the years, this happened 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).

Click here to read my narrative CV.

Current Projects

Next to my art practice, I am active in various projects that aim to make art world dynamics transparent, and local art scenes more welcoming.

The Conscious Artist Membership is an international platform to discuss art and artmaking realistically and holistically.
“Kunst und Klischee” is a German-language podcast with with guests from arts and culture; Marlene Streeruwitz, Roland Düringer, Voodoo Jürgens, Sara Ostertag, and many others joined so far.
The YouTube channel “On Doubt in Creative Practices” publishes short documentaries of creatives of all backgrounds, and accumulated over 750k views and over 75k watch hours by 2023.
The Handbook for Emerging Artists discusses artmaking and the art world in a complete way; it’s freely available (no paywall), and has been read over 70k times by 2023.

Click here for a list of all projects.

Visual Storytelling

I studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna — in the classes of Daniel Richter, Harun Farocki and Gunter Damisch (2006-2011). Painting, film and graphics, reflecting my curiosity on various image creation and interrogation methods.

Throughout these years I eventually focused on storytelling within the medium of painting; I also began my Doctoral Thesis (PhD) on this topic, which changed into an ontological interrogation about “Painting and Digital Technologies” (Elisabeth von Samsonow, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, 2011-2015).

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

The PhD thesis led to my curatorial work and to art writing — but also got me to expand my analog works to include digital processes. My final drawings and paintings rarely show their underlying digital roots; these are often based on my self-coded prototyping environment which enables image and video abstractions (based on the Processing programming environment), and a robotic plotting device to be used for rendering certain parts onto paper or canvas. This results in an analog figuration that’s natively based in geometric abstraction – while keeping an analog exterior.

Resonance

An urge towards resonance is something that keeps its importance over the years: to be close and vulnerable with people, ideas and processes. It makes me feel alive.

Painting, creating, expressing are first and foremost strategies towards resonance to myself; for others to feel, as a result of my art, my writings, coachings or compositions. For me to feel something during the process of creation, and the experience of mutual resonance.

Conscious Artist Membership

I started the Conscious Artist Membership in 2023, as a networking and knowledge exchange platform for everyone who cares about discussing art and artmaking realistically and holistically.

The program is based on my urge to support artists to succeed in their career and lives. It is the result of hundreds of deep dives with artists and creatives and international workshops given at art schools and universities. It builds on my freely available Handbook for Emerging Artists, and offers affordable art deep dives for everyone.

The program is meant for an international audience: It offers two group calls per month, plus access to two private discussion groups (Facebook and Discord). It’s not based on me giving lectures, but on everyone sharing their experiences: to come together and both learn and unlearn.

This way, the Conscious Artist Membership helps you understand the connections between work and network, and how to find a holistic balance between these poles — your balance. One that helps you stay focused producing work, and to connect that work with the world.

Click here for detailled information on the Conscious Artist Membership.

Christian Bazant-Hegemark