viennacontemporary [1] is an international fair for contemporary art in Vienna, Austria. From 2015 to 2020 it took place annually in the fourth week of September at the Marx Halle, located in St. Marx, a part of Vienna's third district. In 2021, the fair took place at Neue Alte Post in Vienna. Since 2022, viennacontemporary regularly takes place in September in Kursalon Vienna in Stadtpark in the center of Vienna. Besides its focus on Central- and Eastern Europe, [2] [3] [4] viennacontemporary presents international and Austrian galleries showcasing young and established positions of contemporary art. [5]
The art fair is accompanied by a series of supporting events, which take place in cooperation with Austrian museums and other art institutions and aim to promote and strengthen Vienna's importance as a center for contemporary art and culture. [6] [7] [8]
Every year, viennacontemporary attracts several thousand visitors, including many international stakeholders of the art world. In 2023 viennacontemporary takes place from September 7-10 in Kursalon Vienna.
In 2012, the team surrounding chairman of the Board Dmitry Aksenov, [9] managing director Renger van den Heuvel, and the two artistic directors Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt and Vita Zaman organized VIENNAFAIR, a fair for contemporary art in Vienna. In 2014, Vita Zaman left the team. In 2015 the fair rebranded as viennacontemporary and moved to Marx Halle. [10] Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt served as artistic director from 2015 to 2018. [11] In 2019, the fair appointed Johanna Chromik as the new artistic director. [12]
In 2021, Boris Ondreička followed as the fair's new artistic director. [13] [14]
In April 2022, it was announced that Dmitry Aksenov will lay down his position as Chairman of the Board. [15]
Built in 1865 in Italian Neo-Renaissance style, Kursalon Vienna is one of the most impressive buildings in the inner city of Vienna. Its magnificent halls provide a grand setting for contemporary art, highlighting Vienna's unique interplay of a historic legacy and a thriving young creative scene. The classical building underscores the fair's function as a networking platform that brings together tradition and progression, East and West, as well as art enthusiasts, selected galleries and renowned art experts from around the world for a brilliant week in the name of contemporary art. For the guests of viennacontemporary, the new venue in the heart of the city offers a unique, enjoyable art experience due to its proximity to many great galleries, renowned museums, charming cafés, important cultural institutions, and architectural highlights of the Austrian capital.
The Neue Galerie New York is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located in the William Starr Miller House at 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. Established in 2001, it is one of the most recent additions to New York City's famed Museum Mile, which runs from 83rd to 105th streets on Fifth Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine Frieze, the fair has since expanded to include editions in four cities, in addition to acquiring several other art fairs. Following the original Frieze Art Fair, the fair added Frieze Masters (2012), also in London, dedicated to art made before the year 2000; Frieze New York (2012); Frieze Los Angeles (2019); and Frieze Seoul (2022). In 2023, Frieze acquired The Armory Show in New York, and EXPO Chicago.
Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery.
Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (USA), Hong Kong (China) and Paris (France). Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, and works in collaboration with host cities' local institutions to help grow and develop art programs.
Omar Hamdi (1952–2015), known as Malva, was a Syrian Kurdish artist who lived and worked in Vienna, Austria.
Bisi Silva was a Nigerian contemporary art curator based in Lagos.
Wu Shaoxiang is a Chinese contemporary sculptor living between Berlin, Beijing and Carinthia, Austria.
Massimiliano Gioni is an Italian curator and contemporary art critic based in New York City, and artistic director at the New Museum. He is the artistic director of the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan as well as the artistic director of the Beatrice Trussardi Foundation. Gioni was the curator of the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.
VIENNAFAIR is Austria's biggest fair for contemporary art and focuses on the CEE region. It has taken place in Vienna every year since 2005 until 2015. Since 2015, the fair has been held under a new name – viennacontemporary.
Paweł Kowalewski – is a Polish artist, member of Gruppa, pedagogue, founder of the Communication Unlimited agency.
Dmitry Kawarga born in Moscow, Russia is a Russian artist. Kawarga began working in his own style of "biomorphism" striving to create a synthesis of science, art and technology. His art is featured in numerous museums and is part of the permanent collection of Erarta, Russia's largest private museum of contemporary art located in Saint Petersburg.
The 56th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2015. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Okwui Enwezor curated its central exhibition, "All The World's Futures".
Aida Mahmudova is an Azerbaijani artist. She is best known for being founder of YARAT Contemporary Art Space.
Daniel Fuchs and Geo Fuchs are an artist couple who are known for their conceptual photography series in numerous international exhibitions.
Stephane Custot, is a French gallerist and art dealer. He is the owner of Waddington Custot gallery in London and Custot Gallery Dubai.
Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard, are two artists who work together as the collaborative art and design studio Fredrikson Stallard. Their furniture and sculptures are recognised as examples of the British avant garde.
Serge Attukwei Clottey is a Ghanaian artist who works across installation, performance, photography and sculpture. He is the creator of Afrogallonism, an artistic concept, which he describes as 'an artistic concept to explore the relationship between the prevalence of the yellow oil gallons in regards to consumption and necessity in the life of the modern African.' As the founder of Ghana's GoLokal, Clottey tries to transform society through art.
The Russian pavilion houses Russia's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt is an international art curator and director. She was appointed as CEO of Tech-Diplomacy.org network in March 2023. Before she was the co-founder together with Micha Anthenor Benoliel of Blockchain.art, a digital platform for artists and collectors. She was part of the founding team that rebranded Austria’s biggest contemporary art fair, viennacontemporary.
1:54 is an annual contemporary African art fair held in London during the October Frieze Week since 2013. It was organized to improve the representation of contemporary African art in worldwide exhibitions, and is the foremost art fair dedicated to contemporary African art in the primary art market. By 2016, the show had become three times the size of the original exhibition with 130 artists represented. A spin-off, pop-up show, 1:54 NY, has been held annually in New York City during the May Frieze New York since 2015. A third location, in Marrakech, began in 2018. Critics have described 1:54 as a highlight of the Frieze event, and wrote that the show's publicity for contemporary African art outweighs the issues of lumping disparate geographic traditions together. The fair's representation from African galleries has improved as the international market for African art expands.