Gabriela Oberkofler

The main theme of Gabriela Oberkofler’s works is the emergence and loss of nature and cultural spaces. Primarily as a draftsman, she examines the relationship between culture and nature. The artist herself describes her filigree, often large-format drawings, in which she depicts the objects, plants, flowers, leaves, broken down into their components and isolated, as “taking the motif completely apart” in order to create something else, to transform them into a new picture. “The works can be viewed meticulously, almost scientifically, and from a distance in an abstract manner.” (H. Perena)

“In the enlargement, structures of flowers and pistils, buds and stigmas, of stems and needles become visible. She transfers their logic to large arcs. Filigree lines grow very slowly, colored patterns stand alone or overgrow the paper. They grow bigger and bigger, geometric orders become apparent and at the same time the structures always remain delicate. …. She not only looks very closely at nature, but also with an equally inquiring view of the big picture. “(Christine Lange)

During her stay in Berlin with a grant from the Wöhr + Reinheimer Foundation, Gabriela Oberkofler looked for a collaboration with the Damascina Rose flower shop. Every evening, the flowers that were not sold, instead of being thrown away, are kept and picked up by her. “The artist gives asylum to the seemingly in vain cut flowers…. She dries them in the studio, arranges them in unfamiliar formations, fills entire rooms with them, portrays them in the usual meticulous manner and asks questions with her work:…. How much nature is there actually in the nature? How much damage does our longing for nature cause? “(Christine Lange)