Biography
Michael Kravagna was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 1962 and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the 80s.
He received a one-year grant for Madrid in 1989. He has been living and working in Belgium since 1991.
He received a one-year grant for Madrid in 1989. He has been living and working in Belgium since 1991.
1989 - Preis des Landes Niederösterreich
1999 - Bauholding Förderungspreis für Bildende Kunst (STRABAG ART AWARD)
2017 - Prix Emma du Cayla - Martin - Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.
Member Künstlerhaus Wien (Vienne)
Membre associé du Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg
Membre associé du Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg
The basic principle of Michael Kravagna’s painting is the exploration of its own elementary elements:
- materiality
- sensuality
- transcendence
- challenge to human perception.
The paintings are painted in layers over long periods of time and as a result appear to be magical protocols of their own history.
Many of his most recent works are each dominated by a dominant pictorial gesture: a line, a scratch, an evenly wiped surface, etc., which in ostentatious repetition dominate the formal structure of the painting.
- materiality
- sensuality
- transcendence
- challenge to human perception.
The paintings are painted in layers over long periods of time and as a result appear to be magical protocols of their own history.
Many of his most recent works are each dominated by a dominant pictorial gesture: a line, a scratch, an evenly wiped surface, etc., which in ostentatious repetition dominate the formal structure of the painting.
The accompanying strict, almost ceremonial process of producing the paintings does not, however, have a
restrictive effect, but rather unfolds an extremely effective variety of difference and repetition.
Since the beginning of his career as a painter, Kravagna has been experimenting with the composition of the painting medium and the organic transformation processes of the material.
These processes are similar to the development and decay in nature: growth and decay, formation and erosion. In his works, he reflects on such natural processes of transformation of matter, motivates, accelerates, radicalizes, or restores them.
Since the beginning of his career as a painter, Kravagna has been experimenting with the composition of the painting medium and the organic transformation processes of the material.
These processes are similar to the development and decay in nature: growth and decay, formation and erosion. In his works, he reflects on such natural processes of transformation of matter, motivates, accelerates, radicalizes, or restores them.