Feb 18, 2026 Artist in Focus

Christina Gschwantner: Painting as a Moment of Relief

Artist in Focus: Christina Gschwantner works with painting to hold chance, restraint, and lightness in tension, letting pleasure and structure coexist

Christina Gschwantner - Artist in Focus - Painting as a Moment of Relief - HAPPY TO BE, 120*100, mixed media on raw linen, 2025 -Image Courtesy of the Artist

Between Gesture and Afterthought

Christina Gschwantner – Painting

Christina Gschwantner lives and works in Vienna. Her painting practice is grounded in an intuitive but disciplined engagement with surface, color, and interruption. The works from her recent series HAPPY mark a subtle shift in tone, without abandoning the rigor that has defined her work for years. What appears light or playful at first is held in place by precise decisions and a calm sense of control.

The HAPPY series began without intention. Leftover paint, casual gestures, and experiments with spray became the starting point. Only later did Gschwantner introduce overpaintings, not as corrections, but as conscious responses to what had already happened.

**Christina Gschwantner** in her Studio - (left) HAPPY FACE, 120*100, mixed media on raw linen, 2025 (right) BIG SMILE, 65*55, mixed media on raw linen, 2026 - Image Courtesy of the Artist

The paintings move between abstraction and figuration, between deliberate placement and events that resist control. A limited set of elements, arcs, dots, fields of white, stains of color, is repeatedly tested until the composition settles into a dynamic balance.

Despite their economy, the works do not feel reduced. The tension between structure and spontaneity remains visible, as does the pleasure of working through paint without forcing meaning onto it. The series currently consists of four larger canvases and four smaller works, each carrying the same quiet confidence.

Gschwantner’s paintings do not ask to be decoded. They operate through presence, timing, and an openness that allows enjoyment to exist alongside concentration, without hierarchy.

Christina Gschwantner on Instagram