MICHA PAYER + MARTIN GABRIEL: from the series Notizen auf dem Wunderblock, 2008, coloured pencil on paper, 50 parts, each 29,7 x 21 cm. Courtesy Christine König

Christine König Galerie Schleifmühlgasse 1a 1040 Vienna Austria (city map) Send E-mail tel +43-(0)1-585 74 74 www.christinekoeniggalerie.com

MICHA PAYER: 1979 born in Wolfsberg, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.
MARTIN GABRIEL: 1976 born in Linz, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.

MICHA PAYER + MARTIN GABRIEL:
2000/01 The School for Artistic Photography Vienna (Friedl Kubelka).
2001-03 Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Renee Green, Marina Grzinic).
2001-06 University of Applied Arts Vienna (Brigitte Kowanz).
2004/05 Academie voor beeldende Kunst Arnhem (ArtEZ), Netherlands.

"The flower, the rat, the child, the pencil sharpener, the astronaut, how do these beings and objects come together to form a unity - it would, of course, seem to be more easily possible in their art than in the world of linguistically ordered categories ...

The artistic works of Micha Payer and Martin Gabriel make it possible to combine one category with another in a playfully simple way: living things with objects, natural things with artificial things. However, the aim of doing so is not to set up a surreal alternative world, but rather to re-create the factual world, one in which it is possible to be different.

Their art is communication, i.e. something created for beholders, including themselves. Yet the communication does not proceed via perception, but rather takes the form of perception directly. What is perceived and experienced inwardly forces its way out and there becomes crossed with the world, which already exists there a priori, pre-scribed - as a sign, as writing, as an image: the material is drawn from articles from encyclopaedias, photographs, drawings from natural history books, children's books or young people's encyclopaedias. However, it is then relayered, piled up in a heap, or put together as a bed which retains the silhouettes of the sleeping family. Or clearly separates them from the mundanity by which they are otherwise devoured."
(Quotation from fading by Ferdinand Schmatz, 2008