Spark Art Fair 2025: Art in the Age of Scrolling and What Made Us Pause
Spark Art Fair 2025: A Review by Munchies Art Club – A deep dive into the art fair that dares to disrupt the endless scroll.Plus, the ultimate game-changer: food that doesn’t taste like regret.
SPARK VIENNA 2025 - BROKE THE -LOOP:SCROLL. STOP. REPEAT.
Art fairs often play out like a bad algorithm. Swipe right. Keep moving. Nothing sticks.
Some booths felt like swiping on Instagram. Others made us forget our phones.
Some booths felt like Instagram in real life. Others made us forget our phones entirely.
But Spark Art Fair Vienna had different plans.
It hijacked the feed, flipped the script—and made us pause.
Because let’s be honest: some art asks for more than a glance.
Some fairs fade into the background. Spark kicked the algorithm in the shin.
🎯 One artist per gallery. Real focus. No fluff. No white noise.
Just presence—raw, unfiltered, in-your-face and impossible to ignore.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Spark Art Fair 2025
👉 This wasn’t another “Instagram art fair.”
You know the kind: sleek booths, shiny frames, instant understanding—and instant amnesia.
Spark didn’t want our likes. It wanted our attention.
And damn, it got it.
🧠 GLITCH MOMENTS & AHA FEELS
Before we even properly tuned in, Arno Beck hit us with a controlled visual virus.
Typewriter meets pixel aesthetic. Analog machine meets digital Super Mario dreamland.
Falko Alexander Gallery + Online Store
Suddenly you’re 12 again, Gameboy in hand, your parents yelling, “Enough screen time!” But you're glued. Beck’s work hits that nerve. Cool. Bold. Nostalgic.
And the best part? It was our first time meeting Arno in person—and it was electric.
One of those encounters that feels less like an introduction and more like a reveal. A glitchy alignment in real time.
The chat? Super grounded, super fun—the kind of artist talk that flows without trying.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Arno Beck - Artist
Then enters Falko Alexander, his long-time gallerist and friend. The vibe? Pure synergy.
You could feel the years of mutual respect in how they talked about each other’s work.
Spark Art Fair: Arno Beck with Falko Alexander Gallery Cologne — Detail of a Typewriter Drawing Image courtesy of the artist and gallery
And then Falko drops it, totally casual:
“Oh, and we’re doing a limited edition of automated machine drawings right here at the fair.”
Hold up. What?!
This is the kind of glitch we live for.
Retro but fresh. Playful but conceptually tight.
The type of nerd energy that makes you want to both high-five the artist and go build a robot that draws.
Next stop: Christine Hauptmann and Kuba Freter (also a great photographer!) from DOD Gallery Cologne, presenting none other than Kottie Paloma.
DOD Gallery
Finally—we got to see his work in person.
We’ve been trying to visit his studio forever. And here it was—full view, right in front of us.
The booth? Bold, raw, no filter. The conversation? Even better.
We expected a polite gallery pitch.
We got one of the most human, fresh, and real chats we’ve had in a long time.
Spark Art Fair 2025 Vienna: Details of Kottie Paloma’s Work with DOD Gallery Image courtesy of Munchies Art Club
You know that rare moment when you realize someone actually gets you? That.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Kottie Paloma
They weren’t selling. They were showing. Sharing. Listening.
And suddenly the fair wasn’t transactional—it was personal.
And then—boom—Kubik Gallery from Porto.
Probably the first real painting moment that slapped us out of autopilot.
A Wonderful Discovery That Made Us Stop — and shop: José Almeida Pereira with Kubik Gallery Porto at Spark Art Fair Vienna 2025
Oil and drawing. Dense. Lush. Sharp. José Almeida Pereira.
No warm-up needed. Love at first glance.
We paused. We leaned in. We stayed.
The booth felt like a portal.
Then came João Azinheiro – Kubik Gallery, the gallerist—charming, casual, totally in his element.
He gave us a mini tour. No script. Just flow.
Talked art. Talked life. Talked weird connections.
One of those chats you remember not because it was loud—but because it was real.
💥 INSTALLATIONS THAT KICKED
Lena Göbel at PSM Gallery hit us hard—not with shock tactics, but soul.
Painting-infused woodcuts, ultrasized and personal.
Like storytelling in wood. Raw. Authentic. Great.
A full installative wall, made from actual metal workshop parts of her grandparents in Upper Austria.
Layered on top? A supersized woodcut. You could almost smell the iron and time.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Lena Göbel - Artist
And tucked in the back?
A subtle artwork dedicated to her grandmother.
Alexander Giese’s booth (Giese und Schweiger) gave us something else entirely—a quiet powerhouse.
A Robert Lettner legacy, guided by the artist’s own son.
This wasn’t about name-dropping.
It was a generational echo, soft-spoken and deeply moving.
Memory, reloaded.
Zweintopf with Zimmermann Kratochwill Graz brought installative madness meets conceptual clarity.
Zweintopf with Gallery Zimmermann Kratochwill Graz at Spark Art Fair Vienna 2025
A massive structure of branches—geometric, supersized, impossible to ignore.
And in the back? A photo-based installation that hit us with emotional whiplash.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Zweintopf- Artist Duo
First laugh. Then goosebumps.
That’s the ride.
Spark Art Fair 2025 Review: From Scroll Amnesia to Aha Moments: The goal? Find those artists who make us stop.
📲 REAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE AGE OF THE FEED
Some booths were perfect simulations of Instagram—designed to please, built to forget.
Others cracked something open.
They stayed with us.
That’s what Spark did right. It made us remember.
Spark Art Fair: Galeria Karla Osorio / Selva de Carvalho
Spark Art Fair Vienna The Breeder / Georgia Sagri I
Art doesn’t need to scream.
But it sure as hell shouldn’t whisper politely and disappear.
In a world drowning in content, memory is power.
💥 Spark 2025 reminded us:
Some art fairs you scroll through.
Others—you live through.
And this one?
It lived back.
🍽 THE UNEXPECTED HERO: FOOD
WHAT’S COOKING?
Let’s be honest—food matters.
Fairs are long. You walk, you talk, you look at a hundred artworks—and then you crash.
Most fairs offer overpriced sandwiches and disappointment.
But Spark? It never lets us down.
Every year, the food is part of the pleasure.
Hot meals. Shared tables. Actual flavor. Zero pretense.
It’s not just about feeding the stomach—it resets the mood.
Good art. Good food. That’s the Spark combo we keep coming back for.
Spark Art Fair 2025
More than a fair. A reset we needed.
Down with the scroll loop. Long live the pause.
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