ARTIST BIO

Vanessa Wenwieser is an artist, born in Munich, Germany, who graduated with a Fine Art Photography degree from the Glasgow School of Art.

Her artworks have been widely exhibited in 2023; virtually with groups and in several physical exhibitions: Boomer Art Gallery, the Marvelous Art Gallery; Holy Art Gallery; Capital Culture House; Florence Contemporary Gallery; the Kuvid Gallery.

The year 2024 started off with a big bang, as her work was shown on a big display board on Times Square New York and she contributed to the physical group show at “Surreal Salon 16” in the Baton Rouge Gallery, Louisiana. In April she will be partaking in a group exhibition by ARTBOX.PROJECTS in Venice during the Biennale Arte di Venezia at an Art Space near the official Biennale Venice.

Her artworks have been included in several books; firstly, by the Marvelous Art Gallery and in Sinead McGuigan’s collection of poems called “Unbound” and her artwork is on the front and back cover of her new book called “The muse of restless nights” as well as several inside it too.

Several magazines published her art: Aesthetica Magazine, The Flux Review, The Circle Quarterly Art Review, Marvelous Art Gallery Magazine, 365 art plus, the Goddess Magazine and on the cover of Art Seen Magazine, by the curators Salon, with an article and more artworks within.

She has also received several art prizes: three from Artrepreneur’s open calls; one from Capital Culture House; two from Mozaik Philanthropy; Digital Finalist in Women United Art Prize 2023 and from the Marvelous Art Group an honourable mention in 2024.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The women in my artwork are portrayed at moments of their life where they have undergone something difficult, be it in health, career or love. They are standing at a crossroads, they have undergone great hardships and have the opportunity to metamorphosose back into the women they used to be.
Strength and beauty for me doesn’t lie in perfection, I can relate to the Japanese concept of “Wabi Sabi”; to find beauty in imperfection and to accept the transience and cycle of life. Through the philosophy of Wabi Sabi, the art of Kintsugi was born, when repairing an antique chair or pottery, the line of where it broke after it is glued together, is left to be seen and often accentuated with gold. It is imperfect, flawed but through it even more beautiful. Equally in my art, I show the battle scars women have gone through and to me that makes them extra special and powerful. Only who has gone through hardship can truly come out the other side much stronger and rise like a phoenix from the ashes. That’s why you can find metaphorical wings often in my art, the symbol of freedom and liberty, often growing through wounds and scars, sometimes only a small bud blooming or flowers or feathers.
I show open wounds where a heart once was, that loved too much perhaps or an arrow through the head; to manifest the feeling of being blind sighted and the pain it causes. How to build a new life from an illness or addiction or a broken home, it shows women with wounds, even their skin cracked and peeling, I leave a window of hope open, through which they can fly, to rebuild their lives, a bit at a time; women have the most incredible power of renewal.

Munich / Germany