Artist`s Statement from Gabriela Nepo-Stieldorf

Culture and civilisation means to exercise dealing with the media, with this kind of hulls which interfere inside and outside, between ones selve and the others: the body, the skin, clothes, language. Gabriela Nepo-Stieldorf presents a whole caleidoscope of  human earthliness in her works. The plea for body, history, emotions and for here and now of this world can be seen in her opus. They can be read as warnings  to stand against suppression of authenticity in the virtual media, to stay alert to the mania of the technical perfection of human being and his duplication in simulacrum. ( Bernhard Braun, professor at the theological university Innsbruck)

My works are based on a dialogue between the individual I and social and personal history, the imprinted role-play, the injuries, mental states experienced within one's personal space, one's skin, and an enlarged view of space as architecture or landscape in a geographical or a social sense.

Using traditional forms as symbol for attitudes even archetypes to stamp on the skins I visualise this fusion from individual and cultural history.

The examination of the three-dimensional, touching and experiencing one's own body and the physical experience of space, the proportionality of person and space grows ever more important in an age where most people receive the majority of their experiences via a screen and other flat transmittors of information.

Acceptance of one's own inadequacies and imperfections through the imprinting of personal, social and cultural history should enable us to lose our clichees, and reconcile us with our own individuality.

Biography  Gabriela Nepo-Stieldorf

born 1948 in Kufstein, Germany, from studying medicine to pedagogy, teaching

1982- 1994 artistic education with, G.Praschak / Art University Linz; Imre Schrammel / Art University Budapest and Siklos

since 2005 organisation of the IKSIT-Intern.Keramik Symposium Innsbruck-Tirol as a triennial

Curator for national and international art projects, e.g. Dreams Carry the Body (on the subject of disability with 6 exhibitions from Trento to Brussels), Translimite (Euregio project with 3 sculptors), author for professional journals

Artist in residence in Italy, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Canada and Japan

3 artist scholarships of the state of Tyrol in Chios/ Greece and Paliano/ Italy

Recognition Prize of the IV.Triennale of Small Ceramics, Zagreb

Silver medal of the IV. international biennial Cairo/Egypt

2008 Golden Order of Merit of the Republic of Austria

Participation in international competitions and symposia e.g. in Germany, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Great Britain, Egypt and Austria with many exhibitions and catalogues

Works in private and museum collections and in public spaces in Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Great Britain, Finland, Slovakia, Russia, Japan, USA and Egypt, among others

Member of the Künstlerhaus Vienna, INTAKT (intern Aktionsgemeinschaft bild. Künstlerinnen), the IT visual arts, the Sculpture Network, im Kunstwerk Krastal, the IAA (Intern.Association of Art), 2019 admission to the ACI-IAC