Exhibitions

Starting in fall 2025, the University of Applied Arts Vienna will celebrate the 45th anniversary of its art collection, which was founded in 1980 as part of the university archives, with events, guided tours, and an exhibition at the University Gallery of the Angewandte, located at Heiligenkreuzerhof. With Fernheilung (Distant Healing), the Angewandte looks back at the artistic scene in Vienna during the decade in which its collection was founded in 1980 by Oswald Oberhuber, the rector at the time: Works from the university's environment at the time, documents and selected loans are used to create a parcours that highlights important events in the art world, exhibitions, artistic movements and discourses of the time in their context. 

Presented by The Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures

Thinking Through Weibel gathers key works out of the Peter Weibel Archive, held by the Collection and Archive at the University of Applied Arts and positions them in relation to contemporary practices by invited international artists, that unfold through distinct conceptual and material approaches. Their contributions do not follow or extend Peter Weibel’s logic, but move across and against it, forming intersections without fixing relationships.

An exhibition by Studio Jacob, Institute of Architecture (IoA)

The Bank of England in Ruins is an exhibition about architecture, ruins, value, and money. The gallery itself is in the heart of the City of London’s financial district, inside James Stirling's postmodernist No1 Poultry, opposite the actual Bank of England.

The Art of Activism exhibition, which is co-operated by Barbara Holub (Art and Communication Practices), as well as the corresponding publication explore a specific segment of protest and engaged art in the Czech Lands, especially after 2009 (the global economic crisis) in the context of international movements such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Women Life Freedom, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, etc. 

In addition to reflecting on Czech individual and collective artistic activities, significant space is devoted to foreign initiatives, especially those that form the immediate political and inspirational context of the local art scene. Through a range of documentary and other artistic media, the project maps examples of “performative democracy” in the form of activist, political and environmentally oriented projects, as well as contemporary artistic practice in the field of social intervention and participatory strategies that contribute to deepening social resilience by supporting civic initiatives.

Eröffnung der neuen Ausstellung 15 Aufenthalte von und mit Heribert Friedl, Lehrender der Abteilung für ortsbezogene Kunst an der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien.

Jonida Laçi (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) and Luīze Nežberte (University of Applied Arts Vienna) hold a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz. The Kunsthalle Wien Preis [Kunsthalle Wien Prize] seeks to support emerging artists living and working in Vienna and to promote discourse on contemporary art via an annual collaboration with Vienna’s two renowned art universities.

Arts-based research installation by MUELLER-DIVJAK in the course of the artistic project SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS. Series of Scenographic Studies / Part VII, Nov 2025 – Feb 2026.

Transcendence: Beyond Bodies, Between Realities is part of the WRONG Biennale 2025/26, and marks the opening of the Transmedia Arts Department’s new online exhibition platform, dedicated to experimental digital practices and showcasing works by selected students.

With works by: Cristian Anutoiu, Lea Gander, Jona Lingitz & Neptunia Monna Anarchus, Maximilian Prag, Lea-Maraike Sambale, freakygreenfish
Exhibition Design: Cristian Anutoiu 

Curated by Martina Menegon

SOIL & WATER is a large-scale artistic research project and exhibition. The project was developed jointly by Associate Professor Basak Senova from the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Professor Johan Thom from the University of Pretoria in collaboration with the NIROX Foundation.

SOIL & WATER is a large-scale artistic research project and exhibition that unfolds within the ancient ancestral land of the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Africa. Developed collaboratively by Prof. Johan Thom of the University of Pretoria, Assoc. Prof. Dr Basak Senova of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, in collaboration with the NIROX Foundation. The project brings together international artists whose practices engage with the fragile and interdependent relationship between soil and water, the two fundamental substances that sustain all life on Earth. 
 
SOIL & WATER is conceived as a modular platform; it opens with the extensive exhibition in November 2025, unfolds through April 2026, featuring exhibitions, residencies, dialogues, performances, concerts, community engagement, and a forthcoming publication. 
 
The participating artists, working from South Africa, Austria, India, Turkey, Ukraine, France, Germany, Sweden, Ethiopia, and beyond, anchor the project in lived realities while extending it into shared imaginaries. 

Was heißt es, sich im Hier und Jetzt zu befinden? In einer Gesellschaft, die Mobilität und globale Vernetzung propagiert, zugleich aber den Zuzug von Menschen problematisiert?

Presented in the small vitrine of the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse, seven graduates of the University of Applied Arts Vienna open a window into the diverse artistic practices and languages of Angewandte alumni, offering a range of perspectives that explore parallels, contrasts, or extensions within the given thematic framework.

The exhibition, curated by Elisa R. Linn, explores the impact of borders on the formation of counter-publics at the intersection of art, literature, and activism in the GDR during and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.