Artist Eva Schlegel Abstracts Interiors in Photographs — Gallery Wendi Norris

April 21, 2017

By Athena Waligore

Untitled (234), 2017, Eva Schlegel. Photographic print on Hahnemühle paper. Photography courtesy of the artist and Galerie Krinzinger — *Untitled (234)*, 2017, Eva Schlegel. Photographic print on Hahnemühle paper. Photography courtesy of the artist and Galerie Krinzinger

Photographing interiors has interested Austrian artist Eva Schlegel for the last three years, but her approach is not that of a documentarian. As seen in “Imaginary Spaces,” at Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna, she instead blurs spaces almost to the point of abstraction. Her large-scale photographs show her attention to light and form, as well as her intention to subvert identification. Glimpses of hallways, walls, and portals acknowledge the representation of spaces, but a photographic blur makes them unrecognizable. “What is important is that the images are working as abstract spaces,” Schlegel writes. Instead, a painterly perception deconstructs standard views and light becomes the defining characteristic. Shadows craft enigmatic forms, while corners and doorways configure geometric outlines. Over 6 feet tall, the images open different views of space and atmosphere. “Sometimes it is not clear where a space begins or ends,” she writes.

The photographic project began when Schlegel was commissioned to portray a Buenos Aires museum for Vienna-based architecture firm Querkraft. She spent a week exploring viewpoints. Shown the resulting images, the architects didn’t recognize the building’s spaces. The artist took that as the greatest compliment possible, because it proved her approach defied confinement.