Elke Krystufek emerged in the early ’90s with in-your-face performances and installations dealing with femininity and sexuality as filtered through pop culture. Taking her cue from ’70s body art—particularly its Viennese branch—Krystufek uses her own image, often distorted, debased, disguised, or made sexually explicit, to confront viewers with collective (and mostly suppressed) revulsions and desires. This exhibition, organized by Sammlung Essl chief curator Gabriele Bösch, is the first comprehensive look at the artist’s prodigious output and consists of approximately 200 works from the past decade, including paintings, photographs, collages, videos, and a site-specific installation. The accompanying catalogue includes essays by Bösch and Viennese critic Peter Gorsen.
