Heimo Zobernig is a leading figure in contemporary Austrian art, known for his conceptually driven works that engage with minimalist aesthetics and institutional critique.

Zobernig’s artistic practice spans painting, sculpture, video, installation, architecture, and design. His work operates at the intersection of art, theory, and spatial design, critically reflecting on the conditions of perception, presentation, and reception of art. He often uses simple materials and clear geometric forms that play with or deliberately subvert the assignment of meaning. His reduction to seemingly “neutral” visual languages becomes a starting point for analytical engagement with color, typography, exhibition systems, and artistic authorship.
A recurring feature of Zobernig’s work is the inclusion of the exhibition context as an integral part of the artwork. Display elements such as plinths, walls, or lighting are not treated as neutral but are revealed as visual and ideological components. Through this, Zobernig develops a precise yet often ironically fractured visual language that questions the relationship between art and design, art and architecture, as well as art and language.

Heimo Zobernig, born in 1958 in Mauthen, Carinthia, lives and works in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since the 1980s, he has been active on the international art scene, participating in documenta IX (1992) and X (1997), as well as the 2015 Venice Biennale, where he represented Austria in the national pavilion. Zobernig has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Roswitha Haftmann Prize and the Grand Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts.