Nikolaus Eberstaller Barbara Eberstaller

THE ARTIST

Nikolaus Eberstaller was born in Klosterneuburg, Austria in 1968. From 1989 to 1994 he studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology. He did not complete his studies, however, but became a freelance graphic artist in the town of Gols in Burgenland. In June 1999, he published his first pictorial, a collection of grotesque drawings entitled Duell zweier Sommeliers [Duel between Two Sommeliers], which garnered him the Burgenland State Prize in the Artworks category. The early death of his father in October of the same year had an impact on his artistic development. After years of working as a drawer, he now turned to expressive painting. The pictures of those years already show clear signs of his future artistic orientation: the body, the surface, the self. The dialogue between the surface and subsurface - often thematised at a later stage - appeared in its broad outlines in that period. In 2001, Eberstaller created the group of works Mode and Torheit [Fashion and Foolishness], a critique of one of his themes: the conflict between outward appearance and inner truth (the subsurface). In the summer of that year, Eberstaller made the acquaintance of Peter Infeld, one of Austria's greatest art collectors. He invited Eberstaller to take part in an exhibition in his gallery. Eberstaller spent the months leading up to the opening of the exhibition working under great strain in his studio. The result was the five-part cycle Triebkraft [Motive Power], which will be displayed in Peter Infeld's exhibit of Austrian artists in the main hall of "Haus der Kultur". The cycle included self-portraits that show Eberstaller in the phases of a highly expressive quest for orientation. In the following years, Peter Infeld bought several works from his studio. In December 2001, Eberstaller was celebrating his wife Barbara's birthday in Krasków Castle in Polish Lower Silesia when he met, by nonchance, the castle's owner, Thomas Gamperl, founder of the "Forum Schloss Krasków" art foundation. The intensity of the experiences around Gamperl and his companions had a big impact on the 33-year-old Eberstaller, who for the first eim entered into the sphere he had most longed for: the artistic lifestyle of the 1920s to 1950s that he had believed was a thing of the past. He seemed to have been drawn into the world of his dreams by a time machine. In 2003, he was awarded a grant by the Forum Krasków Foundation and set up his new studio in the big event hall. During several stays, the friendship between Gamperl and Eberstaller grew stronger. In Krasków, Eberstaller encountered the inconceivable power of the grotesque. People from all over the world met there and confirmed Eberstaller's courage in his endeavour to make the "subsurface" his home. While the groups of works Kraskow I-IV originated in Poland, Eberstaller devoted himself to art on the construction site in Austria. The most impressive of these works was created for the fashionable bar & gourmet restaurant MOLE WEST (go to website) on the shores of Lake Neusiedler, for which Eberstaller not only conceived the corporate design but also enveloped the building in its spherically dancing "northern lights". In the following years, Eberstaller exhibited in Krakow, Wroclaw, Berlin and Austria. Each of these journeys encouraged Barbara and Nikolaus Eberstaller to lead their lives according to the principle of "nonchance". Barbara, who organises her husband's art to a decisive degree, intensified his contacts and presented his works internationally, also at the "Art International Zürich" exhibition. In the shop of the lithographers Chavanne and Pechmann, Eberstaller regularly printed lithographs that depicted the main stations of his life. In 2004, he fell gravely ill. He composed fragmentary sketches during the wake-up phase easing him out from the artificial coma at Rudolfsstiftung Hospital, Vienna, Erfahrungen am eigenen Leib [Experiences on my own Body]. This recovery culminated in the group of works THE REAL LIFE COLLECTION, which represents his experience in the form of digital composites and documents the life of  the artist at regular intervals. After his convalescence, the Eberstallers lived even more passionately than before. Numerous excursions put the focus in their lives on the PRESENT. The bronze statues Roter Cherub [Red Cherub] and Nackter Mensch I und II [Naked Human I and II] were cast in Posen. In 2005, Eberstaller created the 30 sq. m. secco Sieben Emotionen [Seven Emotions] for Heidi and Josef Lentsch, the owners of the wine cellar and gourmet restaurant Gasthaus zur Dankbarkeit. In 2006, he created Kokon (Cocoon) as "art on the construction site" for Fritz Tösch's gourmet restaurant Am Nyikospark. In 2007, Eberstaller designed a stylish "guest area" for the hotel owner Wolfgang Stündl and his head chef, Gerald Jeitler. 2009 appears quite promising: art for mii-AG, individual exhibitions in Austria, Germany and Poland. Eberstaller's works have been awarded prizes at several occasions, including a grant from the Forum Krasków art foundation (go to website) and 2 awards at internationally renowned Golden Drum Graphic Design Festival in Portoroz, the European Logo Design Award EULDA. Eberstaller has also won first prize 25 times in the competition for the Adebar award of the federal state of Burgenland (in the categories "Art in Construction", "Artwork" and others).

2010 he became awarded twice at the international GOLDEN LABEL Competion. His sculpture BATTLEFIELD won a shortlist-award at the London international creative competition LICC. 2011 Ebertaller has been selected to be in the Final of the 2011 Charlatan Ink Art Price in New York (US) - the winner will be announced at the vernissage of the Finalists Exhibition at the Carlton Arms Art Hotel  on Sept. 29th in Manhattan (NYC). In 2011 the partnership with the art agent Nicole F. Loeser from Whiteconcepts starts: The first Exhibitions and Art Fairs: THE END OF THE DREAM (Mica Moca in der Tresorfabrik), PREVIEW BERLIN Emerging Art Fair and a AFTERSHOW at Whiteconcepts.

2011 Eberstaller won two red dot winner awards at one of this world's  most famous design contests.

In 2011 Eberstaller creates his own currency: HONEY-Home Made Money The first edition starts with 56.000 banknotes, which are spread at the Beekeeper-Performances. Dr. Achim Gnann, Kunsthistoriker und Kurator an der Wiener Albertina, analyses HONEY and BATTLEFIELD: : Honey Analysis as .pdf

Midyear 2011: The artist duo Nikolaus and Barbara Eberstaller start  planning their project MARIE COCHON: Marie Cochon is a taxidermied pig, stuffed with HONEY banknotes. She works as a performance artist, doing city tours with friends focussing on "the social incompatible Greed at other people's expense". Her first tours leads her to VIENNA and BERLIN, where she is exhibited in the Kunstbüro Berlin (Group exhibition Der Goldene Käfig - The Golden Cage).

Catalogues: Duell zweier Sommeliers [Duel between Two Sommeliers] (2000), The Krasków Series I-III (Krasków Castle 2003), Seltsame Gebilde [Strange Fabrications] (Krakow, 2004), Die Erreichung des Gegenteils von Durst [Attaining the Opposite of Thirst] (Club 119, 2008), Face (Gols, 2008), Eberstaller in the Haberkasten Gallery (Mühldorf/Inn, 2009).

Awards & Grants:
2 red dot awards 2011 (D)
Finalist Charlatan Ink Art Price New York 2011 (US). Final decision on Sept. 29th 2011 in NYC.
Art Award: LICC - London Creative Competition Shortlist (GBR)
2 Awards: GOLDEN DRUM FINALIST Portorož (SI) 
2 Awards: INTERNATIONAL GOLDEN LABEL (A)
2 Awards: THE CUP (SI)
Grant of the Art Foundation Forum Pałac Krasków (PL)
EULDA European Logodesign Award (Europa)

Nikolaus and Barbara Eberstaller live and work at the "Altes Kinohaus" in Gols, at Krasków Castle, or wherever their friends call them.