In early summer 2025, Anneliese Schrenk (b. 1974, lives and works in Vienna) will be showing a selection of her current works in the tresor of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien.

Skin has been Anneliese Schrenk’s central theme for many years. Among the work materials she uses is “Ausstoßhaut” – “shed skin, discarded skin” – leather, unused because of some defect or other that might have occurred during processing. Stretching the material on a canvas frame, she tattoos or burns into the surface delicate motifs which are reminiscent of anatomical drawings of the Early Modern Age. These “skins” manifest beauty, but equally cruelty, and revolve around such themes as life in the affluent society, the animal disposal industry, body cult and body awareness. Anneliese Schrenk also arranges sculptures and installations formed out of iron and steel instruments used for example in the abattoir or in animal husbandry. Here she opens up new horizons of meaning that are full of ambivalences – pleasure as well as pain, sometimes poetic and hushed, sometimes piercingly insistent and almost violent.

For the tresor Anneliese Schrenk has created a unique spatial arrangement formed out of pictorial material, installation and sculpture. Anneliese Schrenk: SCALE & SKIN approaches the question of the skin in a holistic context: “Every human being, every animal, every plant, every thing has a surface /skin and thus bears a relationship to this material. [...] Before plastic was ever invented, leather was THE material for industry and warfare. Leather fascinates me because of its inherent political components,” she says.

Anneliese Schrenk’s artistic work, despite frequent participation in group exhibitions and as yet known only to a fairly small circle of art insiders, is striking for its technical diversity and conceptual precision. For decades now, her work has dealt with a single major theme, one that could not be more topical: the respect for life and our common existence.

Opening on Wednesday, 7 May 2025

tresor in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien