IMAGE VIBES #1

All things exists to became images in some sense for us

Josef Strau | Sophie Gogl | Marina Sula

Curated by WAF

5. 07 - 06. 09. 2025

IMAGE VIBES #1 builds a dialogue between artists of two different generations: Sophie Gogl (born 1992 in Tyrol, Austria) Marina Sula (born 1991 in Albania, raised in Italy) Josef Strau (born 1957 in Vienna, Austria). At its core, it's about identifying the aesthetic and its negation – a process often initiated by emotionalization and appropriation. In the flash of colliding thoughts, ideas coalesce into dynamically arranged images. Crucial here is the selection of temporality, meaning the aesthetic inherent times within the works and images. One could describe them as stored formal and conceptual contingencies. From this point on, we speak of "Image" or "Picture-Image" – both are applicable.

Contemporary Art, amidst the flood of media images, discarded much as "Poor Images".

Only here, and precisely then, is the term "Image" understood purely curatorially: How does it come into being, how is it arrived at? On one hand, the experimental acts at the beginning, guided by the desire to test and try. On the other hand, philosophical and conceptual approaches soon drive the entire creation process forward. Through games of reflection, the selected artists maneuver their aesthetic techniques. This state significantly characterizes their production: on one hand, charged by an intersubjective narrative mode, and on the other hand, guided by encrypted poetic work perspectives.

Josef Strau's installations, sculptures, texts, and paintings often delve into Neoplatonic metaphysics, particularly that of Plotinus. One of his working terms is "Hypostasicisms," which refers to the concrete existence of a thing, or he is interested in the practical applications of idealistic discourses in the creative process. He asks how inspiration and materiality can help us interpret a free-spirited, timeless image.

Sophie Gogl's primary medium is painting, in which she merges pop culture icons with everyday observations and art historical references. Often employing puns and cynical humor, yet always guided by great seriousness, she places pictorial image concepts and reaches theoretical and practical perspectives. The image delves deep into her color palette, revealing the mood of the picture/image.

Marina Sula, in her work and installations, seeks out that "certain something": how easily control structures dissolve, how things usually exist unconstrained or unconstrainedly manipulated. This concerns aspects such as image construction and image deconstruction. A pressing aspect of her work is to investigate questions of accessibility and classification in art and to blur the boundaries between high art and non-art.