Josef
Rainer
In Josef Rainer's new cycle of works, the written word leaves the page to take on body, weight and presence. Novels that have marked the history of literature are translated by the artist into ceramic busts, in which word, form and colour converge in a single plastic experience. These are not simple portraits, but visual condensations: each sculpture aims to convey the essence of a book, its symbolic core or a scene capable of triggering memory and reflection. Rainer starts from an awareness of the transformative power of literature, its ability to illuminate social contradictions and generate change.
As with Dickens' Oliver Twist, which sparked a public debate on child poverty, the texts chosen by the artist — from Shakespeare to Thomas Mann, from Hemingway to Orwell — carry with them a critical force that transcends time. Sculpture then becomes a means of emphasizing this socio-cultural impact, making visible what in books is entrusted to words. The ceramic busts are constructed like small three-dimensional theatres: alongside the protagonist, narrative episodes, secondary figures and symbolic details emerge, alluding to key moments in the story. The glazed surface, vibrant with colour, is not simply a coating but an integral part of the narrative. Here we see the ongoing dialogue between sculpture and painting that characterises Rainer's work: modelling, drying, firing and glazing are stages in a single process, in which the material is progressively transformed and imbued with meaning. In this cycle, ceramics becomes a meeting place between text and image, between literary memory and sensory perception. The works do not illustrate the books, but reinterpret them, inviting the viewer to recognize, remember or rediscover stories that have helped shape European and Western cultural consciousness. Thus, literature continues to speak, no longer only through words, but through faces, gestures and colours that ask to be observed, questioned and thought about.
Biography
Josef Rainer was born in 1970 in Bressanone (I). Between 1991 and 1997 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 2001 to 2003 he received a scholarship in Vienna and since 2003 has divided his time between Dufftown and Scotland. In 2008 he stayed in London and in 2010 in Vienna. In 2019 he won the HGV Artist of the Year award. He currently lives and works in Bressanone.
Exhibitions
Among the main solo shows we remember:
2026
UPCOMING, Alessandro Casciaro Venice (I)
2022
Metamorphoses, Galleery Alessandro Casciaro, Bolzano (I)
L'artista è annoiato, Galerie Völs (I)
2016
Synapsen, City Gallery, Bressanone (I)
2015
Die wundersame Vermehrung des Loretoschatzes, oder die Frage nach den Zusammenhängen, City museum of Chiusa (I)
2014
Aktenzeichen Kunst, Gallery Goethe2, Bolzano (I)
Von denen die auszogen..., Galleria Prisma, Bolzano (I)
2010
Gnorismata, Gallery Goethe2, Bolzano (I)
2006
Verschlungene Wege, Gallery Goethe2, Bolzano (I)
Urban Paths, Gallery Shillam Smith 3, London (UK)
2004
Metropolis, AR/GE Kunst, Bolzano (I)
He has also taken part in numerous goup exhibitions, including:
2025
Un - limited world CERAMICS, SKB Artes, Bolzano (I)
2023
What's new?, Galleria Alessandro Casciaro, Bolzano (I)
2022
My favourite work, Galleria Alessandro Casciaro, Bolzano (I)
2014
Il dolore del presente, City Gallery, Bressanone (I)
New Tradition, Biennale Architettura, Timisoara, Romania (R)
2020
Short List, Premio Combat, Livorno (I)
2019
Essere corpo, Kunsthalle West, Lana (I)
2014
Tirol-München, Ferdinandeum Innsbruck (A)
2013
Spuren, Martin and Josef Rainer, Kartause Schnals (I)
2011
Disturbi e Disordini, Biennale Alessandria Video Fotografia Contemporanea (I)
2009
Playstation, Merano Arte (I)
Todesangst - Positionen 09, Galleria Prisma, Bolzano (I)
2008
Manifesta 7, Parallel Event, We all hang together, Le carceri, Caldaro (I)
2005
7 Positionen, RLB-Kunstbrücke, Innsbruck (A)
2003
Panorama 03, Arte giovane in Alto Adige, Bolzano (I)
2002
Das absurde Bekannte, Phoenix Art, Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg (D)
2000
Premio Suzzara, Galleria Civica, Suzzara (I)
Related Exhibitions
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