Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘artist’

Vienna in (the) 5: artist Julia Bugram

(“Raising Hands”)

The sculpture provided the introduction three years ago. Two clasped hands, each as tall as a person. Each hand made of 1-million 1-Eurocent coins. Seen in 2022, next to St. Stephan’s Cathedral. Seen next in 2023, the sculpture moved near the big fountain at Schwarzenbergplatz. A wonderful crowdfunded project, created by Austrian artist Julia Bugram.

This past spring, I receive a kind invitation to visit her studio. It’s July and I’m in Vienna’s 5th district. I make my way up to the 2nd floor of an “Altbau”, and arrive at a cozy working art-space shared between Julia and another artist.

Julia is presently exploring themes surrounding community and society; and how art can create, enhance, and strengthen connections among people. Artistic influences include: Hilma af Klimt, Mela Diamant, Renate Bertlmann, Margot Pilz, Jakob Lena Knebl, Martha Jungwirth. Her “Raising Hands” sculpture is presently in storage, waiting for new benefactors and fresh eyes.

We spoke at some length about the economic and cultural challenges contemporary Austrian artists face in the creation and distribution of their work, as well as the difficulty of commuting between Vienna and her home in Burgenland. Despite challenges, I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll create in the near future.

Links to her website and Instagram.

Working art space shared by Julia Bugram and Elisabeth Hansa. (I’ve greyed out their contact numbers.)
Julia’s recent book with images of her recent art pieces, including extensive discussion and the context of her work: “Widerstand & Neugierde: Kunst, die Veränderung fordert.” (Resistance & Curiosity: art that demands change).
Back cover.
Most who directly supported the publishing her book are from Vienna, other parts of Austria, and Europe.
Her triptych creation, “Fut – Mut – Wut”, presented here in alphabetical order with carefully selected wallpaper-like background motifs. Three words of equal length that rhyme, each word an expression of an essential facet or dimension for a woman.
Defiance and empowerment, body autonomy, questioning the gaze, control of their own narratives.
Many of the pieces on the wall include sketches of plants, emphasizing her desire to commune with and derive inspiration from nature.

My thanks to Julia for her invitation and her time. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 11 July 2025. I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Image by mohamed hassan on pxhere (CC0).

18 artists and togs I found in 2018 (IG)

A lot of ink, talk, discontent, and contempt has appeared regarding the uses and abuses on Facebook’s Instagram; see here and here. I discovered on Instagram the presence of the following 18 artists and photographers, some of whom I’d already been aware from print. It’s in many of their images where I’ve found stillness, inspiration, stimulation, and provocation, and that’s why you should get to know some of these people. I’ll continue to admire their work elsewhere when present forms of social media will (must?) inevitably disappear.

( Click here for more )