Bernard Ammerer

Interface, 2015, oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm

Ammerer’s pointed and ironic titles often hint at the somber thread of disaffection that ties his works together. Interface—a six-foot-square canvas depicting a constellation of nondescript young men in jeans and t-shirts frozen mid-leap in a white void—is most notable for the palpable lack of physical and psychological interaction among its inhabitants. Fulfillment Problem—that bland euphemism from the realm of online commerce that so often signifies corporate ineptitude and consumer frustration—is paired with the image of a cloudy yellowish sky overrun with a chaotic, maze-like swarm of identical running figures lifted from a Children At Play traffic safety sign. The infantile and perpetually unsatisfying urge toward instant gratification that’s satirized here is subtly underscored by Boyhood, which presents the sad and wistful disembodied head of a child floating alone in a dark, nebulous space. It’s the only place in these works where an actual face can be seen, and its stark difference from the other canvasses hints at an irrevocable loss of naive serenity that no hoard of shiny toys, transient pleasures, or wanderlust can amend. The moral—for Ammerer’s oblivious protagonists as well as us—is perhaps best embodied in Home, with its ghostly white house at the end of a blank path in a barren field: far too often, our ill-considered quests away from ourselves in pursuit of the Next Perfect Thing leave us alone and exhausted before a hollow apparition.

Bernard Ammerer (1978) lives and works in Vienna. He graduated University für angewandte Kunst, Wien in 2010 and is the recipient of the Strabag Art Award. Recent exhibitions include “Vorher Nachher” Galerie Frey Wien (solo), Dagong Art Museum, Qingdao (group), “Subjects” Galerie Drees, Hannover, (group) “A Better Place” Galerie Frey, Salzburg (solo), “You Choose” Berlin Art Projects, Berlin(group).

Biografie:

2003-2010 Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien bei Johanna Kandl und Wolfgang Herzig
2004 Teilnahme an der Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg bei Xenia Hausner
2001 Abschluss des Studiums der Rechtswissenschaften

Exhibitions (select) / Ausstellungen (Auswahl):

2017 “Hi(ghly) Unreal“ Galerie Frey, Wien (solo)
2016 “Interface“ 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York (solo)
2015    DAGONG Art Museum, Qingdao, China (group)
“Figur,Struktur. STRABAG Artcollection“, RLB Kunstbrücke, Tirol (group)
2014 “Figuration zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit“, Museum Angerlehner, Wels (group)
“Subjekt“, Galerie Robert Drees, Hannover (group)
“vorher nachher“ Galerie Frey, Wien (solo)
2013    “A better Place”, Galerie Frey, Salzburg (solo)
“Pulse Miami art fair”, Solopräsentation
2012    “State of Mind”, Galerie Frey, Wien (solo)
“ABC”, Stadtgalerie Ternitz (group)
“Preview”, Galerie Frey, Salzburg (group)
2011    “You choose”, Berlin Art Projects, Berlin (solo)
2010    “The Essence”, Künstlerhaus, Wien (group) Diplomausstellung Universität für angewandte Kunst
2009    “Exit strategies”, Galerie Frey, Wien (solo)
First Danube Biannale, Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava, Slowakei (group)
2008    “7 parallel 7”, Artexpo, Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Bukarest (group)
“6 X 3”, Galerie Frey, Wien (group)
“The Essence”, Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien (group)
2007    “RED”, Galerie Frey, Wien (group)
Preisträgerausstellung Strabag Art Award, Strabag Kunstforum, Wien (group)
Qingdao Art Museum, Qingdao, China (group)
“move”, Strabag Kunstforum, Wien (solo)
2006    “The Essence”, Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien (group)
“Two Perspectives”, Galerie Frey, Wien (sol0)
“REAL”, Kunsthalle Krems (group)
2005    “New Perspectives”, Galerie Frey, Wien (group)
“Frisch gestrichen”, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (group)
“Malstrom”, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (group)
“Alle reden vom Wetter”, Hotel Kunsthof, Wien (group)
2004    Stadtgalerie Vienna (group)

Awards/ Auszeichnungen: Preisträger Strabag Art Award

Categories: Artists