At the Gallery Weekend Salzburg from 27 to 30 July, 22 galleries show the broad artistic diversity of Salzburg’s gallery scene.

Salzburg, with its worldwide reputation as a place of cultural creativity, has many festivals in the course of a year where concentrated cultural competence meets an enthusiastic but also critical audience. For example, the Salzburg Festival or the Mozart Week put the city in the global spotlight for a short time each year. Given the city’s rich cultural history, it is no wonder that painters and sculptors have contributed to Salzburg as a Gesamtkunstwerk. There are galleries in the city, some with a 100-year tradition.

From 27 to 30 July, the Gallery Weekend Salzburg presents 22 galleries and their current exhibitions. “Several days offer the opportunity to explore the diverse local art scene due to a compact and varied programme offer in the contemporary galleries and exhibition spaces.” So says Gallery Weekend Salzburg in its self-description. The diversity is considerable.

The Mario Mauroner Gallery presents paintings and sculptures at two locations in Salzburg. From 23 July every Saturday from 12-16 h (during the Salzburg Festival), the gallery invites you to the Art Lounge at Ignaz-Rieder-Kai. In a relaxed atmosphere in the sculpture garden and gallery house there, you can learn more about the gallery’s artists’ working methods and inspirations in a personal conversation. The Gallery Weekend exhibition “My One and Only” (love is the only superstar), which shows different facets of love, is curated by Stephan Stoyanov. The ancient Greeks had 8 terms to describe love, from eros for romantic, passionate love to mania as obsessive love. Works on all 8 terms are on display. Among others, a work by the Spanish artist Carlos Aires, who also makes queer life concepts visible in his paintings (see above). At the other gallery location, in the courtyard of the Residence, the Mario Mauroner Gallery is showing “Inspire Me” – 8 selected masterpieces for the Gallery Weekend.

Pop art is the theme of Galerie Walentowski at Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 3. “Here you will find works by the popular 3D artist Charles Fazzino, as well as the Austrian artist Fiona Hernuss and, of course, classics by Udo Lindenberg, Otto Waalkes and many other artists,” says the gallery in its self-portrayal. In addition to the artists mentioned, there are also works by Thomas Jankowski, for example a powerful Freddie Mercury.

Galerie Trapp at Griesgasse 6 is showing paintings by Franziska Maderthaner for Gallery Weekend. She calls her paintings Country Punk, which were created during the Corona Hermitage. In the portrait of the artist, the gallery writes: “The car, synonymous with locomotion and freedom, was metaphorically ‘buried’ in the pandemic times. In car graveyards in the countryside, these emotionally charged objects find their burial. The fact that nature reclaims its space over time provides images that are both poetic and critical of civilisation. Nature and its rampant wildness, being an animal in an unpredictable environment, that’s country punk.”

Walk through the world of art

The Leica Galerie at Gaisbergstraße 12 is showing photographs by Lars Eidinger. The current Everyman at the Salzburg Festival is also a photographer who creates art. Like many others, the Leica Gallery is a point of contact during the guided Artwalks. Experienced art guides accompany you through selected galleries and enable you to exchange questions with the artists and gallery owners. The Artwalks are free of charge.

Gallery Weekend Salzburg 2022, 27.07. till 30.07.2022