Art Works
Moving Left. 9 artworks acrylic on canvas
110 x 110 cm, 2023
110 x 110 cm, 2023
Artwork Series
Download: Morte-Leporello (PDF-format)
Download: Nero non é (PDF-format)
Download: Black Chip NATFOR11 (PDF-format)
Download: Between The Lines (PDF-format)
Technique
„Reinhard Zich’s painting focuses on the essential: color and shape.
His imagery is based on artistic trends such as the “Neo Geo” movement, which in the 1980s deliberately opposed the wild, fast and figurative painting of the “Junge Wilden” to strictly geometric shapes in colored fields.
Too strict categorizations and stylistic classifications fall short of Zich. The formal level of painting in his pictures (line, area, contrast, color and texture) seems to be able to speak at least as dramatically and emotionally as the gestural style of a painterly expression.
The works are formally strictly composed, but by no means constructed soberly.
With bright basic colors such as blue and red, emerald and orange, but also gold, black and white, the artist explores the emotional potential of color and light and implements this in a poetic visual language – a visual language that always refers beyond what is seen and basic themes how life and death, timelessness and infinity give an abstract pictorial form.”
Guenther Oberhollenzer, artistic director Künstlerhaus Wien
Biography
Reinhard Zich was born to Magdalena Edeltrude Zich and Robert Birkner in Vienna November 29th, 1961.
Robert Birkner, with whom Reinhard did not have a close relationship, studied medicine in Prague and was a doctor in a village close to Vienna. Edeltrude worked in a post office in Vienna. She was a good mother, took care for the young Reinhard and made sure he received a very good education.
His grandfather, who was a farmer, and his mother explained to him at a young age about their experiences during the Second World War and that his grandmother was killed by the Hitler regime. However, Reinhard grew up in a healthy environment near Vienna where his grandfather introduced him to the life of a farmer.
But once he started school in Vienna, his passion for art came out as well as his interest in theater, painting and singing.
Although Reinhart grew up in a very Christian religious house, when he was young he was more interested in art even though his mother wanted him to be a priest.
So, Reinhard was visiting a college from the Salesian Don Boscos. At the age of 18 he joined the Cistercian monastery Heiligenkreuz, where he studied theology and philosophy after the novitiate and after taking the first vows.
At the age of 20, he left the Cistercian order and studied drama at the Prayner Conservatory. After 3 years of acting studies, he attended the class of Operetta and Musicals at the Conservatory of Vienna for one year.
Then at 24 he moved to Rome where he studied opera singing with Marinella Mieli and appeared on the stages of Rome and at the Opera Festival in Pesaro. After the untimely deaths of his mother and father, he withdrew and lived on an idyllic farm in Umbria.
| 2000 | He resumed his work as an actor. |
| 2005 | He lived for 4 years in Berlin where he studied at the Deutsche Schauspieler Medienakademie Berlin (DSAB) and graduated with a diploma as a multi-media actor and continued with his interest in art and began experimenting with the technique of gilding. |
| 2010 | He decided to spend more time on painting in order to carry it out professionally. |
| 2012 | He moved to Istanbul where he was dedicated only to painting an opened his own showroom 3 years later. |
| 2016 | His first extensive solo exhibition “Between The Lines“ took place at the invitation of the Austrian Culture Forum in Istanbul. Studio at the Heiligenkreuzerhof University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he realized his large-format work “The five worlds or Unnecessary transformation“. Solo exhibition “Between The Lines“, Brick 5, Wien Presentation / Vernissage of “The five worlds or Unnecessary transformation“, Hotel Kaiserhof, Wien |
| 2017 | Solo exhibition “Excess of Oxygen“, Bank Austria Head Office, Wien Solo exhibition “Black Chip Natfor 11“, Galerie Felix Hoeller, Wien |
| 2017/18 | Began work on the project “Linear Outbreak“ On the island Favignana, Sicily |
| 2019/2021 | Exhibitions museum of contemporay art in Trapani and Palermo |
Exhibitions & Projects
- 2023
Group exhibition series „Edle Oberflaechen“ / NoeArt curator Hartwig KnackSolo exhibition „Moving Left“ / Basis Vinschgau Venosta / Südtirol
Curator Prof. Joachim Lothar Gartner / Former Director Künstlerhaus Wien and Bildrecht - 2022
Solo Exhibition Nero non e´ Gallery Artmark Wien
Curator Günther Oberhollenzer / Artistic Director Künstlerhaus WienSolo Exhibition „Blaupause“ Gallery Haus Nummer 13, Meran Südtirol
- 2021
Cycle „Linear Outbreak“ – Subseries Morte -Death – Capella dell’ incoronata – museum of contemporary art Palermo / Artistic guidance / Günther Oberhollenzer Artistic Director Künstlerhaus Wien - 25th October 2020 – 07th February 2021 (will be extended):
Exhibition „Nero non é“, Museum of contemporary art – Trapani Sicily – with Guenther Oberhollenzer, curator of the museum „Landesgalerie Niederösterreich”. - 17th – 24th July 2020:
OPEN DOORS – Atelier of Reinhard Zich – Special selling of the artworks created in Istanbul between 2012 – 2016 - 4th March 2019:
Artist talk in the studio / The former president of the Künstlerhaus Wien and today’s president of Bildrecht Wien Prof. Joachim Lothar Gartner in conversation with Reinhard Zich about the meaning of space, form and color in his art. - 28th January – 08th March 2019:
Open Atelier, Vienna - 04th October – 05th November 2017:
“Black Chip Natfor11“ Exhibition at Gallery Felix Hoeller, Vienna - 10th April – 23th june 2017:
Exhibition “Excess of Oxygen“ at Unicredit Bank Austria Vienna - 28th November 2016:
Special presentation event of my artwork “The five worlds“ or “Unnecessary Transformation“ at Hotel Kaiserhof Vienna - 24th – 26th October 2016:
Exhibition “Between The Lines“ in the well-known location Brick 5 Vienna - 4th October 2016
My new art work “The 5 worlds“ or “Unnecessary Transformation” is hanging in the known Hotel Kaiserhof in Vienna. - 27th September 2016:
Atelier-Cycle with collectors and art lovers at the University for applied Arts Vienna - 20th September 2016:
Private Atelier-Event at the University for Applied Arts Vienna - July -Oktober 2016:
Atelier-Project “The 5 worlds“ University for applied Art Vienna (Hochschule für angewandte Kunst Wien) - 15th February – 4th March 2016:
Exhibition “Between The Lines“ Austrian Culture Forum Istanbul - 13th and 14th October 2015:
Presentation of “Promising darkness“ in my showroom Istanbul - 29th May 2015:
Celebration and opening of my own showroom in Istanbul - 1st September 2012:
Opening of my Atelier in Istanbul
Exhibition projects visual
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The five worlds or Unnecessary transformation acryl, acryl glass, wood, high polish gilding, gold leaf on convas 220 x 380 cm, 2016
The five worlds or unnecessary transformation
was created at the Heiligenkreuzerhof, an annex of the Universitaet fuer angewandte Kunst Wien.
My colleague, the visual artist Demetrius writes the following about this artwork :
“The five worlds of unnecessary transformation” is a stunning, large-format work that commands the space through its sheer presence. When viewed from a distance, the composition’s clear geometric forms create an interplay between the symmetry of the five round worlds and the asymmetry of the black grid through which they are seen.
A closer look at the image reveals a new dimension of rich form and three-dimensionality, arising from the use of diverse materials such as wood
anacrylic glass; the continuity of these materials across the areas of the worlds painted over in black evokes a tactile sensation. The opulent gold background adds yet another facet to this interplay of texture and sharp detail through its shifting appearance depending on the viewing angle—at times radiating warm light, at others reflecting the viewer, or placing the composition within a sacred context—gold, the flesh of the gods, the symbol of eternity.
promising darkness acryl oil pastel high polish gilding plain gold on canvas 125 x 250 cm, 2015
I painted this artwork in Istanbul immediately after the suicide bombing in Suruç on July 20, 2015.
A memorial to all the young people who are no longer among us.
Before we close the zip fastener, we remember them by letting them speak to us themselves :
suddenly we heard a big crash and a messive impact put us down
on the ground and only darkness was around us we were dead our fight for peace humanity and democracy was over but we are sure in the end the good will win.
ankara gash acryl high polish gilding gold leaf on wood 100 x 100 cm, 2016
Ankara Gash is an artwork which remembers on the suicide bombings in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on October 10, 2015. The explosion of the two devices killed 102 people.