For Svenja Deininger (b. 1974; Vienna, Austria), painting is a continuous process of coating and uncovering, adding primer, color, and varnish, and then stripping back to raw canvas and opaque areas. Deininger begins with layers of base coats and one abstract form – sometimes a shadow, other times a memory – proceeding almost magically, often without visual brushstrokes or gestural styles. The resulting intimate abstractions have consistently shown the intensity that a painting can have within a larger space, its edges providing the only index for how it was made and its atmosphere created. As if they materialized fully formed, Deininger's paintings masterfully deny all evidence of their making.
Deininger has exhibited extensively across Europe and the United States. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; Secession, Vienna, Austria; Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria; and the Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria. She has been featured in group exhibitions at the Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; the Neues Museum Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany; Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland; Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium; Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland; and the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna Austria, among others. Deininger studied at the Kunstakademie Münster and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She lives and works in Vienna, Austria, Milan, Italy, and Berlin, Germany.