NANA MANDL. Kunst zwischen Stoff und Pixeln
Our film on Nana Mandl’s artistic practice reveals how the Austrian artist unfolds her work at the intersection of the digital and the material, of the past and the present. The work of the 2024 STRABAG Artaward International main-prize winner emerges from a richly textured archive—collected fabrics, screenshots from social media, childhood memorabilia, and even disposable phone pictures. This seemingly disparate collection is bound together by an intuitive sense of connection, where nostalgia and contemporary narratives collide.
The process is both organic and meticulously structured. At its core lies an exploration of visual relationships—why certain images resonate, how they interact, and what unexpected dialogues might emerge. Mandl's compositions often juxtapose personal memories with broader cultural themes, allowing a single piece to exist simultaneously in the realm of the intimate and the collective.
A defining element of her work is her engagement with materiality. Textiles play a crucial role, bringing with them embedded histories, textures, and a sense of corporeality. The physicality of fabric challenges the traditional two-dimensional limits of painting, allowing her works to extend beyond the wall, into space, onto objects of daily life. Art, in Mandl’s world, is not confined to the frame—it infiltrates furniture, clothing, and even the gallery space itself, transforming it into an immersive environment.
Her textile-based works chosen for the STRABAG Artaward reflect this multidimensional approach. Originating from phone selfies and other ephemeral digital moments, they translate personal digital archives into tangible, tactile experiences. Some of these works, framed traditionally, maintain the familiarity of a painting, while others, suspended freely in space, invite the viewer to move around them, to engage with them physically. The duality of these hanging pieces—one side figurative, the other abstract—reinforces the idea of shifting perspectives, of layered meanings that unfold depending on the viewer’s position.
A recurring tension in Mandl’s work is the contrast between surface aesthetics and deeper content. At first glance, her pieces appear playful, colorful, even cheerful. Yet, beneath this vibrant exterior, they often carry undertones that subvert the expected—a critical reflection on self-representation, digital culture, or identity. This subtle interplay between attraction and disruption lends her work an intriguing complexity.
Winning the 29th STRABAG Artaward International marks a significant moment in Mandl’s career. Beyond the recognition, the award offers expanded visibility, bringing her work into new contexts and audiences beyond the traditional gallery circuit. As her artistic language continues to evolve, so too does the way in which she negotiates the ever-shifting boundaries between the personal and the universal, the physical and the virtual.
The exhibition "related issues" by the artist is on display at the STRABAG Art Site im Gironcoli-Kristall, Donau-City-Straße 9, 1220 Wien till February 24th, 2025.
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