I am Veronika Merklein.
Later, I’m asked several times whether I had performed.
I say yes.
Veronika Merklein (*1982) is a German performance, photo and video artist and political activist, based in Vienna, Austria.
Veronika Merklein’s artistic gaze focuses on social injustices in (Western) societies, the silent pain and soundless scratching of the ground of nightmarish life events, depressive depths of feeling, and silent conversations between people. Merklein’s works are always personal, but not necessarily autobiographical. While her body-political works are mostly loud, garish, and brash, her quieter works often reveal a delicate and poetic (written) language. Her artistic strategy consists in capturing inexpressible personal, social or political problems and events humorously to painfully – in image and text. Food is always part of her work – in performances, on paper, photographs, and even breadcrumbs on her t-shirt bear witness to this. An earlier cycle of work (2006-2012) dealt with the theme of “performance art and its documentation”.
Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) and Kunsthochschule Kassel (DE), Merklein’s work has been shown at institutions like the Wiener Festwochen (AT), Dom Museum Wien (AT), Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago (US), Neuer Kunstverein Wien (AT), Kaskadenkondensator Basel (CH), Fridericianum, Kassel (DE), Secession, Vienna (AT), Kiasma, Helsinki (FI) and repeatedly at home.
Veronika Merklein has received grants from among others the Austrian Cultural Forum New York City (US) & Ottawa (CA), from Austrian federal grants, the City of Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT). In 2023 she received the Federal Scholarship for Fine Arts of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport. She has been fellow of artist-in-residency-programmes such as Cité internationale des arts Paris (FR).
The artist is represented by galerie michaela stock in Vienna (AT). Selected works are available on Artsy.
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