Photo: Photo Baurecht

Internationales Gastatelier Maltator | AiR

Gmünd in Kärnten, Carinthia

ausstellung

With one of the best Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programs in Austria, the cultural initiative invites international guest artists each year for a two-month working stay at the Maltator. Since 1993, over 80 artists from all over the world have taken the opportunity to spend two months here, in the midst of the historic old town, in the unique atmosphere of the medieval gatehouse, to work and exhibit. The stay in the artist town of Gmünd offers guest artists the unique opportunity to get to know Austrian art and culture far from urban centers, yet to live in a culturally highly interested and active environment, to make contact with local artists and those exhibiting in the artist town, and to contribute to the diverse cultural life. Program 2026: Lukas Köllner - Painting. The exhibition by Lukas Köllner can be seen from May 1 to June 30, 2026. Lukas Köllner (born 1991 in Düsseldorf) lives and works in Mönchengladbach and Düsseldorf. After initial experiences as a self-taught painter and graffiti artist, he studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he became a master student of Prof. Siegfried Anzinger in 2019. His works combine classical painting techniques with urban aesthetics, pop culture, and art historical references. His pictorial worlds are populated by grotesque and humorously designed figures and surreal dreamscapes – a unique expression that oscillates between magical realism and contemporary narration. Since 2023, Köllner has shown his works in his first solo exhibitions. About his work: Lukas Köllner's artistic practice is a means of catharsis. In large-format oil paintings, drawings, and texts, he processes themes such as vulnerability, shame, and human connection. He translates everyday observations into fable-like pictorial worlds, populated by cartoon-like creatures, plants, and animals with anthropomorphic features. His works develop their own mythology, in which humans, animals, and objects interact equally – in a poetic world that oscillates between comic aesthetics and medieval pictorial tradition. Instead of realistic depiction, his visual language arises purely from imagination – as a conscious counter-design to visual perfection. Painting, poetry, and drawing enter into a multi-layered dialogue, opening up emotional spaces of experience between personal feeling and collective resonance. Motivation and project description for the AiR stay in Gmünd: "I am interested in everyday observations that I make on walks or in contact with people. I process these in the form of poetic short stories, drawings, and especially paintings. My work is about human connection and vulnerability – and about banal everyday moments in which these two aspects become visible. Texts, drawings, and pictures constantly refer to each other and spin a continuous small mythology. During my stay, I would either develop an exhibition using these methods that deals with my experiences with the people and the place of Gmünd – or use the opening hours to enter into a dialogue with visitors about experiences of vulnerability and to further process these artistically." (Excerpt from Lukas Köllner's letter of motivation) Sissa Micheli - Photography, Video, Installations. The exhibition by Sissa Micheli can be seen from July 1 to August 31, 2026. Sissa Micheli (*1975 in Bruneck, South Tyrol) is a Vienna-based artist whose works have been exhibited internationally and have received multiple awards. After studying English and Romance languages at the University of Vienna, she first attended the School for Artistic Photography and then completed her diploma studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Micheli received numerous prizes and scholarships, including the Academy Prize in Vienna and the Premio Pagine Bianche d’Autore in Milan in 2008, the BKA studio scholarship for Paris and London in 2009 and 2013, and the State Scholarship for Artistic Photography in 2015. In 2016, she was honored as "Artist of the Year" by the South Tyrolean Artists' Association and the HGV. Her works have been shown in numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions and are represented in public and private collections. About her work: At the center of Sissa Micheli's photographs, videos, and installations is the transience of human existence and the view of ephemeral phenomena. With flying textiles, which usually cover face and body, she creates fascinating temporary sculptures that, in a sensual play, visualize the fleeting and transient. Her photo series of object assemblages – consisting of everyday objects and museum objects – offers humorous insights into a surreal microcosm that exists only for the photographic moment. Impressively and highly aesthetically, she explores the structures and interstices of photography – always in the tension between reality and fiction. Her most recent works are characterized by landscape ontology and a critical view of today's understanding of science. In doing so, she deals with topics that are directly related to the challenges of our time. Micheli translates her observations of reality into metaphorical forms to show the limits of our functioning system and to initiate a critical analysis of our society. Motivation and project description for the AiR stay in Gmünd: "A photographic series of works with people from Gmünd, who will become part of the artistic work as models, is planned. The portraits are to be in form and expression related to rel