Through her improvisational process of painting, revising, and repainting, Svenja Deininger (b. 1974; Vienna, Austria) reveals abstract compositions defined by layered planes of rich colors, subtle textures, and delicate patterns. Beginning with a single form—little more than a shadow or memory of form—Deininger's compositions unfold slowly over time, as she carefully reworks the surfaces, revealing areas of opaque color and raw linen alongside thick, layered patches of color. Products of time, place, and process, Deininger's paintings nevertheless seem to deny all evidence of their making-their surfaces preternaturally devoid of brushstrokes, the layers of paint visible at the edges of the canvas providing the only index for how the work came into being.
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.