With her solo exhibition “I borrowed optimism from the past” that is aligned to the echo of the Achievement Prize for Fine Arts of the Province of Styria, at Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, the Austrian artist Sonja Gangl is now opening a new chapter in her artistic oeuvre and devoting herself to abstraction with a comprehensive new production. On this occasion, an extensive catalogue will appear with Revolver Publishing, Berlin, which includes the works that for the most part have been produced especially for the exhibition. Next to numerous reproductions and exhibition views, the publication contains texts by Sandro Droschl (KM– Graz), Jana Franze (KM– Graz), Peter Geimer (Freie Universität Berlin), Elsy Lahner (Albertina Wien) and Robert Woelfl (freelance writer, Vienna). At the festive catalogue presentation at Künstlerhaus, Sonja Gangl will be present and she will talk about the news paths of her artistic practice with the curator of the exhibition, Jana Franze. The author Robert Woelfl will then read his catalog text "Giants at the Door."

Sonja Gangl (*1965 Graz, lives in Vienna) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Markus Prachensky and at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Ernst Caramelle. Since 2003 she has been a member of the Vienna Secession. Her exhibition “Dancing with the End” (2013–14) was the first solo presentation that the Albertina Museum in Vienna dedicated to a woman artist. Gangl’s work has also been shown at numerous other art venues and is known beyond the border of Austria. She has had solo exhibitions in the Studio of the Neue Galerie Graz (1998), at Kunstverein Wolfsburg (1999 and 2000), Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten (2016), and more than once at Atelier Contemporary in Graz (2009, 2014, and 2019) and Galerie Krobath in Vienna (2015 and 2018). In 2010, Gangl represented Austria at the biennale “Women & Art 2010” at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates. At the Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien the artist already exhibited her work in 2014 as part of the group show “Words as Doors in Language, Art, Film.” Aside from the Achievement Prize for Fine Arts of the Province of Styria (2018), Sonja Gangl has also been honored with the Prize of the City of Vienna for the Visual Arts (1992), the Art Achievement Prize of the City of Graz (2002), the Promotion Award of the Province of Styria for Contemporary Fine Arts (2004), the BAUHOLDING-STRABAG Art AWARD (2005), the Art Prize of the City of Graz (2008), and the City of Vienna Prize for Fine Arts (2016).