1961 | Born in Vienna, Austria.

Markus Orsini-Rosenberg paints nature in its purest form—as it appears to the naked eye. Nature provides the very reason for his painting. The Carinthian artist, who once studied under Maria Lassnig, has long been devoted to traditional painting techniques. Countless brushstrokes and hours of labor are required to apply oil to canvas—a medium that reveals its lasting luminosity only through a natural process of oxidation. For Orsini-Rosenberg, nature is a source of strength, a challenge, and a continually evolving subject that never loses its inherent allure. In the present moment, his perception is attuned to a time that flows slowly—a time that belongs to him, self-slowed and self-shaped. His artistic reflections focus on what already exists, as well as on activating places that allow one to truly “see,” restoring to them what is most rightfully theirs: a constellation of essential and sensory elements. These include the horizon, the earth, the plain, agriculture, nourishment, righteousness, growth, the sky, the forest, breath, language, voice, blood, religion . . . or water, the river, energy, memory, forgetfulness, emotions, and so forth. In essence, his artistic practice involves viewing landscapes as reflections of states of being, a means of weaving together the natural world with thought, introspection, and cultural memory.