Circo Zirkus
Curated by Leander Schwazer
Opening: 20 November 2026, 7 pm
With Circo Zirkus, StadtGalerie Brixen presents a solo exhibition by Viennese artist Éva Bodnár (*1952, Budapest). Working in the orbit of Austria’s “Neue Wilde” movement of the 1980s, Bodnár developed a distinctive artistic position of her own. Although she belonged to a generation known for its expressive, gestural painting, Bodnár remained less visible in art history than many of her male contemporaries.
The exhibition title refers to Bodnár’s 1985 painting Zirkuskäfig (Circus Cage), in which she explored the depiction of wild circus animals. The motif can be read as a metaphor for a painting practice oscillating between control and escape, restraint and untamed energy.
Painting is traditionally a slow medium. Bodnár, however, approaches it with eruptive immediacy. Her aim is not to meticulously reproduce reality, but to capture the energy of a moment before it has already passed. This interest in speed is particularly evident in her “television drawings” from the 1980s. How can a moving image be painted? How can the constant influx of images from the world around us be processed?
Bodnár responds with intensely physical images committed to a realism of the moment: reality is not reconstructed, but spills onto the canvas in wild yet reduced eruptions of colour, lines, planes and gestures.
The exhibition at StadtGalerie Brixen offers a glimpse into Éva Bodnár’s extensive body of work, bringing together selected paintings spanning more than four decades.