Zwischen Luv und Lee

Stefan Zsaitsits at Galerie Trapp

We are big fans of the very gifted Austrian artist and illustrator Stefan Zsaitsits. Having an extraordinary strong signature running through all his work, the artist who’s still based in his country of birth, creates captivating dark pencil drawings of mostly childlike figures in which he oftenly seems to hybridize particular thoughts and emotions directly on or with the body part which is involved. The highly delicate and at times slightly repulsive raw images evoke a sense of unsettlement, although there is also great beauty to be found even in the smallest details, sometimes under a layers of scratched pencil marks — underscoring the many, at times literally, layers one finds in his thought-provoking creations. As of recently he has moved beyond just the pencil (after having worked with paint some years ago too) and in his latest works color —mostly a blood colored red— is thoughtfully applied, creating another level of depth in his depictions. A collection of these latest works open for the public today, in the Salzburg-based Galerie Trapp, where Zsaitsits presents his newest creations in an exhibition named ‘Zwischen Luv und Lee’. 

The gallery on Zsaitsits’ new exhibition:

His unique work convinces through an exceptional authenticity, his fantastically resourceful line art shows a captivating tension between density and interpretational wealth on the one hand and reduction and clarity on the other.

Stefan Zsaitsits was born in 1981 in Austria. After his studies at the University of applied Arts in Vienna, from which he graduated in 2006, he has slowly been expanding his body of work carrying his specific signature. His work has been exhibited on several locations throughout Austria, mostly in Vienna. Before the current exhibition at Galerie Trapp, his incredible graphite head portraits were on exhibit at Galerie Lang Wien and Art Austria 2014 and to underline the growing acknowledgement of his talent: in the same the artist received the Art Austria Award. His work has been published in the book ‘Der Hals der Sängerin’ of Austrian writer Barbara Frischmuth by Edition Thurnho; the artist self-published a book with works from 2010 and 2011 named ‘Kopfgesänge‘ or ‘Headsongs’; and at the end of 2014 he self-published the book ‘Homunculi‘, in a normal edition and an incredible limited edition, which are both still available in his personal webstore.

Accompanying the ‘Zwischen Luv und Lee’ exhibition two prints will be available for purchase, next to the original works, both in an edition of 25.

Galerie Trapp is located at Griesgasse 6 (on the first floor) in Salzburg. Opened Wednesday — Friday from 13:30 until 18:00 and Saturday from 10:00 until 14:00.

For all information on ‘Zwischen Luv und Lee’ see here

For more work by Stefan Zsaitsits see here