Daniel Ferstl, Austrian, born 1982, lives and works in Vienna, studied painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with Christian Ludwig Attersee.
Exhibitions including at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2015), New Jörg, Vienna (2015), Ve.Sch, Vienna (2015), Belvedere, Vienna (2016), Belmacz Gallery, London (2017 and 2019), Foundation, Vienna (2018), Zeller van Almsick, Vienna (2020), Austrian Cultural Forum, London (2020), Wonnerth Dejaco, Vienna (2022).
By means of textile applications on the canvas, Daniel Ferstl creates campy, cartoon-like archetypes of contemporary subject models, which also emerge from the paintings in the form of textile sculptures.
Without the physical support of the paintings, their protagonists loiter passively and flaccidly in the exhibition space.
Between optimized self-image, disappointing reality, and dreamy wishful thinking, the fictional individuals are confronted with the void at the center of any subjectivity.
Equally inspired by movie posters of the 70s and 80s, pop culture of the 90s and contemporary internet culture, Ferstl's art finds a position of agency in the emphatic affirmation of the surface – in the abandonment of the standardized-idealized self in reliance on one's own, however oblique and supposedly kitschy, taste.
Wonnerth Dejaco, Vienna
Lovers
03 March 2022 — 22 April 2022
© Wonnerth Dejaco and the artist.
All Photos: Peter Mochi