What is a picture? What do we perceive in our surroundings, how do we create an image in our mind and how can we visualise this in a painting? The Summer Academy offers four different courses, which deal with these and further questions, concentrating primarily on painting.

Varda Caivano will examine in her course Painting lab – painting enquiry three core issues: The position of the artist, the world of the image, and the critical view. Participants in Tomasz Kowalski’s course Relativity Express: painting as a stage for inner self will learn how to use painting techniques as a tool for inner exploration, or as a platform for confronting the inner self with others. The course What is a picture? directed by Bernhard Martin is intended for artists who wish to explore and explain their pictorial vocabulary and their manner of viewing images, and who want to achieve the technical ability to render a concept intuitively. The main subject of investigation in Irina Nakhova’s course The nude: interpretation in painting is the human figure. Through working with life models, participants will understand that observational skills are basic to any artwork, including abstraction.

Varda Caivano, Untitled, 2015. Acrylic, charcoal and oil on canvas, 120 x 180 cm. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London. Photo: Angus Mill.

This Sunday, February 22, Varda Caivano’s first solo presentation in the United States, titled The density of the actions, will open at The Renaissance Society in Chicago. During the opening reception, she will discuss her practice and the new works in conversation with the curator Solveig Øvstebø.

Tomasz Kowalski, Bez tytulu, 2015, acrylic, spray on canvas, 160 x 130 cm

Kowalski’s works are currently on view in group shows at Tim van Laere Gallery in Antwerp (until 7 March), at Carlier | Gebauer in Berlin (until 14 March) and at Boccanera Gallery in Milan (until 31 March). On 21 March, his solo exhibition Planck Time will open at Carlier | Gebauer in Berlin.

Bernhard Martin, Gähnen und applaudieren im Orchestergraben [Yawns and applause in the orchestra pit], 2013, oil on raw canvas, 170 × 190 cm

In celebration of the Fred Thieler Prize for painting 2015, a major solo show with Bernhard Martin will open at Berlinische Galerie on 29 May.

Irina Nakhova, Senses: Apples, dyptich, 2010, oil on canvas, 78 x 78 cm each

The exhibition Post pop: east meets west, including works by Irina Nakhova, is still on view until 3 March at Saatchi Gallery in London. There is an interesting review of this exhibition in the German newspaper Der Freitag (only in German), also pointing on the political difficulties Nakhova has to face regarding her presentation in the Russian Pavilion of La Biennale di Venezia 2015.

It’s time to apply for one of the courses at this year’s Summer Academy. What are they about? Click here for all details. Additionally we’ll give you more information on the specific topics as well as on news from our teaching artists, curators and writer here on the blog.

The “human” and the “non-human”

What is “the human”? What distinguishes man from animal or from machine? What are the specific options open to human conduct, and how can these be considered through art? In an age of biopolitics, global waves of refugees and terrorist attacks, these questions are more relevant than ever, and will be discussed by several of the teachers. Using various media, Doug Ashford (The non-human) and the Egyptian video artist Maha Maamoun (They were like animals) will explore with their students forms of human society, culture and political structure. Tobias Zielony (Migration), represented this year in the German pavilion in Venice, will examine through photography the cultural backgrounds and experiences brought to Salzburg by people who have fled or migrated here.

Tobias Zielony, Al Akrab, 2014, courtesy KOW, Berlin

A complete survey of Zielony’s work in film is currently on view at KOW gallery in Berlin until February 14. In this short interview in Ludlow magazine he describes what is important for him in his photography and films. On February 10, the German Pavilion of La Biennale di Venezia 2015 helds a round-table with the participating artists Olaf Nicolai, Hito Steyerl, Tobias Zielony and Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk at Künstlerhaus Bethanien / Studio 1 in Berlin.

Doug Ashford, Bakersfield, CA, 2014, installation view, Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo

Soon you can see Doug Ashford’s work in a group show at Ludlow 38 in New York, opening on February 20.

Maha Maamoun, 2026, 2010

Maha Maamoun's work is involved in the group show Lest the two seas meet at Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, opening on February 12. On February 20, Maamoun’s film 2026 will be screened within the film programme Dreams and Delusions at NYUAD, The Arts Center in Abu Dhabi.

The 2015 course programme is online. Apply now for participation in one of the 21 inspiring courses directed by internationally known artists.

In her work, Elisabeth Schmirl confronts today's flood of digital images by extracting a selection of digital self-portraits from the internet, feeding them into her own archive and reproducing them as paintings or as prints. She traces the visual attributes and typologies (facial expression, gesture and posture) which could constitute the specific character of a young, usually female generation. Elisabeth Schmirl co-founded and now runs the cultural initiatives "periscope" (Salzburg) and "batolit" (Vienna) – two artist-run spaces which explore questions of working methods in contemporary art.

Elisabeth Schmirl will direct a three-week course from 10 to 29 August 2015.

(video only in German)

His preferred material is marble, for its qualities as material and for its examples in art history – both of which give rise to complex questions. He relates the stone statue of the human figure to modern spaces, opening up new possibilities for contemporary figurative sculpture. In his research, Peter Niedertscheider also makes use of video, photography and performance. A space is not the frame for a composition, but the prerequisite for a certain disposition – a possible arrangement of cultural experiences. This applies both to individual fully sculptured figures and to the disposition of mass figures in his reliefs.

Peter Niedertscheider will direct a four-week course from 2 to 29 August 2015.

Read here in DrehPunktKultur about his last year's course.