Paper Positions | Edges and Études

Edges and Études brings together two distinct yet resonant artistic positions—Marianne Lang and Michaela Spiegel—each exploring the poetics of form, tension, and embodied experience through their art.

Marianne Lang’s intricately rendered water formations challenge our perception of natural forces. Her meticulously composed, symmetrical wave structures evoke both beauty and threat, combining an almost clinical precision with apocalyptic undertones. In Lang’s work, the natural order is destabilized, giving rise to surreal visions where physics falters and tension prevails.

In contrast, Michaela Spiegel’s ongoing Études series celebrates fluidity, sensuality, and feminist embodiment. Executed in pastel over acrylic-washed paper, her drawings unfold like musical movements—playful, evocative, and deeply intuitive. Her work channels feminist legacies of abstraction, invoking the body not as object, but as presence: joyful, assertive, and transcendent.

Together, these two bodies of work offer a dynamic dialogue between control and spontaneity, structure and sensation. Edges and Études invites viewers to contemplate the aesthetic and conceptual boundaries where form becomes feeling, and where drawing acts as both inquiry and revelation.

ENDLICHER | HÜPFNER
Much more than that
14 March - 6 June 2024

Language as a starting point and working material - this is precisely where our exhibition of works by Michael Endlicher and Kurt Hüpfner comes in. While Michael Endlicher has devoted himself entirely to language, whether presented in performance and video or captured in images, writing is a daily companion for Kurt Hüpfner, but has only found its way selectively into his works. Two writing artists and critics meet - they question and provoke.

Michael Endlicher experiments with words and letters in his works; the exhibition shows works from three groups of works: Critical Paintings, Drama Sheets and Letter Paintings. Endlicher questions how art is talked about - in his critical paintings he quotes art critics, theorists and reflections on art. He takes statements out of context, puts them on the canvas and turns words into images. The critically smug undertone in the selection of quotations is almost impossible to ignore, as they are always meaning-laden, almost incomprehensible formulations.

The language is based on a system of vocabulary and grammar - similarly, there is also a clear system in Endlicher's drama sheets: Each letter corresponds to a numerical value based on its position in the alphabet: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 ... Z = 26. If you add up the individual letter values in words, you get a specific number for each word. Each sheet shows three words and the valid numerical value above them.

At the center of the exhibition is the artwork MUCH MORE THAN THAT - composed of 16 letter paintings. Each canvas of the series shows a letter, a number or a punctuation mark, which can be endlessly reassembled according to the set box principle. It is a maybe banal but, if you like, meaningful sentence that makes us even more aware of the empty phrases that surround us.

Growing up during the Second World War, Kurt Hüpfner was shaped by his experiences during the war and the post-war reconstruction. Throughout his life, he was afraid of the next crisis, followed political events closely and questioned the meaningfulness of life. This skepticism is also evident in the formulations in his works - which, strictly speaking, simply make no sense and follow no concept.

This places him in the tradition of the Dadaists of the early 20th century, who manifested the senselessness of the First World War with their ironic, anarchistic anti-art. They experimented with the generally accepted concept of art and declared everyday objects to be art objects. Senselessness, chance, improvisation and provocation were the main focus. The same applies to Kurt Hüpfner, his works are not planned but are created intuitively, there are no material limits - he uses what he has at home and the viewer often searches in vain for the meaning behind the work.

Text: Selin Stütz-Staudinger

KURT HÜPFNER | Resilience

As part of our participation in viennacontemporary 2025, we present our exhibition "Resilience" featuring works by Kurt Hüpfner (1930–2022).

At the center stands the figure of Hiob (Job), whose story of suffering, endurance, and spiritual confrontation touches on themes that remain as relevant today as ever.

In the biblical narrative, Job experiences personal loss and physical torment but faces his fate with a poignant mixture of despair, defiance, and faith. His unwavering search for meaning amidst devastation embodies resilience.

Surrounding Job are drawings and sculptures that pick up and continue these themes. They explore how resilience manifests in the face of chaos, loss, and transformation.

Our presentation invites visitors to view inner strength not as a static trait, but as a dynamic, evolving response to life's challenges.

 

ALL IN 2.0
16. Nov - 21 Dec 2023

The exhibition shows a collection of works by the artists of the Galerie Dantendorfer - Peter Baldinger, BENKA, Christian Brandtner, Kurt Hüpfner, Marianne Lang, Petra Lupe, Christine Mayr and Adrian Uncrut.

Peter Baldinger – Dissolution is the central concern in Baldinger's oeuvre, whether through square grids or making the motif unrecognizable by blurring it. He asks himself the question: How much information is necessary to recognize an image motif? Or the other way around: How much image resolution is possible so as not to completely lose the motif?

BENKA – With his art, BENKA wants to encourage viewers to question digitalization and the use of smartphones and artificial intelligence in our everyday lives. The artist is interested in the complex interaction between humans and machines and the associated opportunities and dangers.

Christian Brandtner - found objects, animal bones, modeling clay - a world in flux in which there are always new landscapes, creatures and metamorphoses to discover. The exceptional Viennese artist Christian Brandtner creates his own microcosm of opposites.

Kurt Hüpfner – painter, sculptor, draftsman, author, visionary and much more. Despite, or perhaps precisely because, he worked in secret for so long, he developed his own, powerful visual language. With this he reflects on the art historical and political developments of the 20th century.

Marianne Lang – Marianne Lang’s central medium of representation is drawing – in the broadest sense – she experiments with different techniques, materials and perspectives. The topic that always concerns her is: nature. It's not just about observing nature, but about the space between nature and people.

Petra Lupe – From canvas, paper and sewing to objects, the artist calls it “working on trial and error”. Working in series is particularly important for Lupe, because only through repeated engagement with a topic or material can she penetrate it deeper and work her way forward layer by layer.

Christine Mayr – The artist began to deal with the complexity of growing up, being a child, being a mother and simply being human in the 80s. Mayr's drawings and sculptures are sensitive, empathetic, courageous, provocative and direct all in one.

Adrian Uncrut – The topics that concern Uncrut are personal, everyday and, above all, human. His use of materials in sculpture and drawing is striking. He mixes bronze, epoxy resin, iron, stainless steel, wood, rubber, plaster and often recycled finds and shapes them into independent works.

FRANZ ALKIER | Ob es nun mein Weg ist
July 31 – August 28, 2025
Curated by Peter Baldinger

In memory of the artist Franz Alkier (1956–2025), we warmly invite you to a small vernissage where we will showcase selected works from his artistic career.

Without formal academic training but with deep inner urgency, Alkier developed a multifaceted artistic voice—ranging from painting, drawing, ceramics, and object art to photography and text.

Born in Styria and once an officer in the Austrian Armed Forces, Alkier’s life took a profound turn during a UN peacekeeping mission. A mental health crisis marked the end of his military career and the beginning of a new reality—art as expression, survival, and transformation.

The exhibition brings together works from all areas of his creative output and seeks to offer insight into the world of a person who never stopped engaging—in relationship with art, with others, and with himself.

 

BENKA @Parallel 2023
5 - 10 Sep 2023

With his art, BENKA wants to encourage viewers to question digitization and the use of smartphones and artificial intelligence in our everyday lives. The artist is interested in the complex interaction between man and machine and the associated opportunities and dangers.

Symbol of the robotization of our society in BENKA's art is the term CAPTCHA, which forms the title of each painting. A captcha is an automated sequence of numbers and/or letters that is intended to check whether the user is a human or a machine. In his works, too, letters and numbers form the basis, which is completed by an intuitive, raw application of paint.

PETER BALDINGER | ICONtrast
27th March - 24th April 2025

Peter Baldinger's latest works explore the ambivalence of icons. Under the title ICONtrast, the exhibition examines the tension between admiration and critique, between collective memory and individual perception.

Baldinger’s abstract portraits of famous personalities oscillate between the familiar and the alien, between clarity and dissolution – a play with identity, projection, and myth. Who are our icons really? And what remains of them when their contours begin to blur?

Text: Elisabeth Dantendorfer

 

Christian Brandtner | Transformation
11 May - 29 June 2023


Found objects, animal bones, modeling clay - a world in transition, where we can discover new landscapes, creatures and metamorphoses. The exceptional Viennese artist Christian Brandtner creates his own microcosm.

Even as a child and adolescent, Brandtner felt a great affinity for drawing. After encountering the art of van Gogh, he began his own artistic activity, which ultimately led to training as a theater painter. In addition to this, an independent artistic work is growing, which ranges from representational painting and drawing to sculptural objects.

Brandtner is interested in contrasts - surface texture, shape differences or contrasting colors - they symbolize life and death, good and evil, top and bottom. Within these poles there are recurring elements in the works, such as the egg, clothespin, eye or arrow. When visiting the artist's studio, one quickly thinks of a cabinet of art and curiosities. The objects impress not only with the variety of materials and detailed work, but also give the impression that they are almost living beings.

The exhibition focuses on the latest series "Tardigrade", in which Brandtner works on the 500-million-year-old tardigrades. Tardigrades are sub-millimeter small creatures that have the extraordinary ability to adapt to the most extreme living conditions. They survive in space, in the arctic or at the deepest point of the sea. The animals are able to reduce their metabolic activity so much that they enter a near-death state and can remain there for decades. It was precisely this adaptability that inspired Brandtner, who transformed the robust tardigrades into flying objects reminiscent of the scientific achievements of the 20th century.

The works from the "Egg Transformation" series impress with their details, in which eggshells, wood, wire, glass, leaves and modeling clay are formed into small art objects. In numerous religions and cultures, the egg stands for creation, life, resurrection - this is how it finds its way into Brandtner's work and becomes the breeding ground for new beings and forms.

Text: Selin Stütz

CHRISTINE MAYR | Love Diverse
26. September - 24. Oktober 2024
 

 

BALDINGER. Danse Macabre
19 January - 16 February 2023

Resolution is the central concern in Baldinger's oeuvre, whether through square grids or blurring of the motif. It also returns to the fore in Baldinger's most recent works reworking Holbein's Pictures of Death.

To this day, art history does not have a clear definition of the motif of the dance of death, the first known representations go back to the 14th century. What unites them all is their message: "All people are equal in death."

1526 Hans Holbein the Younger created 41 woodcut designs on the theme of the Dance of Death, which were published in 1538 as a book by Hans Holbein. As an innovation compared to medieval dances of death, Holbein divided the dance-like procession of the dying into separate individual images in which the death meets individual representatives of the estates. Holbein's cycle begins with the creation, he progresses to the fall of man, the expulsion from paradise, comes to the fates of individual professional and social groups and finally ends with the Last Judgment. What is special about Holbein's Dance of Death is the enumeration of the individual fates according to status. The first person to die is the Pope and the end is the death of a child. The entire work is to be understood as a critique of morals and estates, for example death puts an end to the bribery of the emperor as the highest earthly judge or the worldly pursuit of goods by the cardinal. However, the central message here is that contrary to all the efforts of the living, in the end all status differences will be dissolved.

Holbein's original drafts are just about 5 cm tall, while the motifs in Baldinger's Danse Macabre are enlarged to a comparatively gigantic size and almost completely dissolved by being superimposed with a very coarse grid. In the series Baldinger tries to take away the horror of the inevitable by anticipating the process in the works.

Text: Selin Stütz
 
PETER BALDINGER - DANSE MACABRE II
12. Juli - 26 Juli 2024
Schloss Bach, St. Urban

On the occasion of the 18. Carinthischen Dialoge
Opening: Freitag, 12. Juli 2024, 20 Uhr
Opening Speech: Agnes Husslein-Arco
Director of Heidi Horten Collection

Visits by appointment
T +43 699 19040363
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

BENKA | Painted with vulgarity
17 November - 22nd December 2022

The winter exhibition at Galerie Dantendorfer in Vienna is dedicated to the Munich-based artist BENKA. The gallery invites you to the opening of the exhibition Painted with vulgarity on November 17th 2022.

With his art, BENKA wants to encourage viewers to question digitization and the use of smartphones and artificial intelligence in our everyday lives. The artist is interested in the complex interaction between human beings and machines and the associated opportunities as well as dangers.

What effects does digitization have on our everyday lives? And in how many areas of our lives do we dependent on machines without realizing it? These questions concern the artist - symbol of the robotization of our society in BENKA's art is the term CAPTCHA, which forms the title of each painting. A captcha is an automated sequence of numbers and/or letters that is intended to check whether the user is a human or a machine. In his works, too, letters and numbers form the basis, which is completed by an intuitive, raw application of paint.

The exhibition title Painted with Vulgarity is intended to focus on the technique and creation of the works. In the tradition of the abstract expressionists of the 1950s, there are no rules in BENKA's painting, it's not about perfection, but much more about emotion and spontaneity. The paint is applied intuitively with brushes, spray cans, hands or spatulas. He wants to create "a human painting, as opposed to a smooth, perfect, clean painting like a machine might paint". This man-made work should also be visible, seemingly vulgar in the application of paint, but elegant in its overall appearance.

New in the exhibition are the small formats, which are fragments of large canvases. They are the remnants of paintings destroyed by the artist: "It's as if I took out the most beautiful thing, like a surgeon" He cuts the essence - "a piece of emotion", as he calls it - from an unsatisfactory work and elevates it into a self-contained work of art.

Text: Selin Stütz