Strong art scene, strong art fair – viennacontemporary closes with 30.863 visitors and excellent sales

Once again, viennacontemporary demonstrated its outstanding position among the international art fairs. With 30,863 visitors at the vernissage and the following four days of the fair, viennacontemporary was able to surpass last year's figures. In addition to the many local art enthusiasts, the fair for contemporary art enticed numerous international art collectors to visit the light-flooded booths of the 118 galleries and institutions from 27 countries in the Marx Halle in Vienna.

“viennacontemporary is a great art fair in a city with a strong and dynamic art scene. The past seven years have been marked by intense development work and many successes, which Renger van den Heuvel and I were able to realize together with a great team. I am pleased to continue to be able to serve viennacontemporary as a consultant and to come to Vienna with art collectors from California next year," says outgoing Artistic Director Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, summing up her work for Austria's most important international art fair.

"I want to thank Christina for her great commitment and valuable contribution to our success. Without Christina, viennacontemporary would never have achieved its outstanding reputation on an international level", says Dmitry Aksenov, Chairman of the Board viennacontemporary.

The galleries‘ great sales confirm the success of this year's viennacontemporary. Both private art collectors and institutions used the four days of the fair to expand their collections. For example, the Zilberman Gallery (Berlin / Istanbul) was able to place a work of Simon Wachsmuth for € 60,000 in the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow. The Collection Deutsche Telekom, which also presented parts of its collection at viennacontemporary, bought the central installation by Luchezar Boyadjiev at SARIEV Contemporary (Plovdiv), alongside works by the Riga Biennial participant Paulis Liepa at Maksla XO (Riga) and by Sasha Auerbakh at :BARIL (Cluj). Galerie Michael Schultz (Berlin / Peking / Seoul) sold works by Andy Denzler (56,000 €), Cornelia Schleime (35,500 € and 47,000 €) and SEO (45,000 €) to collectors from Germany, Korea, and the Czech Republic. Viltin Galéria (Budapest) sold four works by György Gáspár (two works of € 3,300 each and two works of € 5,500 each), as well as two works by Árpád Forgó ( € 2,000 each), and Galerija Vartai (Vilnius) sold several oil paintings by Dominykas Sidorovas (500 to 1,800 €). Jochen Hempel (Berlin / Leipzig) sold works by Theun Govers (1,500 to 3,500 €) and Sven Kroner (15,000 to 20,000 €), and Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph (Berlin) sold several works by Benedikt Leonhardt (3,000 to 11,000 €) and Philip Loersch (8,000 to 10,000 €). The pop / off / art gallery (Moscow) dealt out 12 works by artist Natasha Tarr at prices ranging from 500 € to 2,500 €, a work by Olga & Oleg Tatarintsev (3,500 €) and one by Igor Chelkovsky (12,000 €). The gallery Clemens Gunzer (Zurich / Kitzbühel) could sell – amongst others – three works by Clemens Wolf for 12,500 € each and a work for 19,000 €, as well as two works by Peter Jellitsch for 12,000 € each. The gallery Ernst Hilger (Vienna) succeeded with works by Oliver Dorfer (18,000 € each) and the street art icon Shepard Fairey (29,000 €). Sophie Tappeiner (Vienna), the youngest amongst the participating galleries, successfully found buyers for the sculptures by Angelika Loderer.

The solo shows of ZONE1 were also well received by visitors eager to buy. The gallery Lisa Kandlhofer (Vienna), who was awarded the BILDRECHT SOLO AWARD for her presentation by Nana Mandl, also sold several works by the artist for prices between 600 and 5000 €. Zeller van Almsick (Vienna) dealt out works by Charlotte Klobassa with prices between 1,400 and 3,600 €. Hubert Winter Gallery (Vienna) placed two 2 works by James Lewis in the collection of Wiener Städtische Versicherung (3,200 € each) and other works, for 1.600 € each, in private collections.

Further successes were celebrated by the gallery Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder (Vienna), which sold two paintings by Herbert Brandl, three works by Sonja Leimer, two works by Luisa Kasalicky and one „Kitchen Piece“ by Karin Sander. Gallery Konzett sold works by Robert Klemmer (35.000 €), Rudolf Polanszky (11.000 €) and four works by Christian Eisenberger (5,000 € each), the gallery Andreas Binder (Munich) sold – amongst others – two works by Luzia Simons (14,000 € each) to a Moscow collector and one work by Julio Rondo (€ 10,000) to Kuwait. Galleries exhibiting with viennacontemporary for the first time were also very successful. The Galleria Michela Rizzo (Venice) was able to sell seven works by Hamish Fulton at prices between € 5,000 and € 12,000, the gallery Gisela Clement found new owners for – among others – two works by Slawomir Elsner (2,600 € and 11,300 €) and Stefan Vogel (7,200 €). The booth of Privateview (Turin), which sold the works of American artist Adam Winner to collectors in Luxembourg and Switzerland, was almost sold out.

"This year's viennacontemporary has once again underlined Vienna's reputation as one of the most diverse and exciting cultural cities in the world. A successful mix of galleries, exciting side events, and a vast supporting program have once again brought numerous art lovers to Vienna. This success proofs that we are on the right track. In the future, we want to maximize viennacontemporary’s potential as a starting point for further exciting cultural activities and guarantee Vienna’s position as an annual fixture for the contemporary cultural sector in the long term," Dmitry Aksenov, Chairman of the Board viennacontemporary, gives the direction for the coming years.

"Our goals for the future are set. With the commitment to organize viennacontemporary at Marx Halle in the coming years, we will continue our success story at this location. But success also means continuous change, and we will continue to develop new services for our visitors. The unique position of viennacontemporary as an art fair where the Western-influenced art market meets the up-and-coming galleries of Eastern Europe, where not only established artists can be found, but also works by young and yet to be discovered talents, will remain at the center of our developments in the future," summarizes Renger van den Heuvel, Managing Director viennacontemporary, the plans for the next editions of viennacontemporary.