With the online viewing room «Seeing Light, Reading Space», Häusler Contemporary honors the outstanding work of Brigitte Kowanz (1957–2022) and presents selected pieces that exemplify key aspects of her artistic practice. On the occasion of the major retrospective «Light is what we see» at the Albertina in Vienna (July 17 – November 9, 2025), which explores Kowanz’s oeuvre from her early beginnings to her late work in all its depth and complexity, the viewing room offers a complementary insight into significant series by the artist.

Kowanz is regarded internationally as one of the most important figures in conceptual light art. Since the early 1980s, she developed a unique vocabulary in which light is not only a medium but also a carrier of meaning. Her works operate at the intersection of language, sign, space, and perception—creating immaterial experiential spaces where visibility and meaning intertwine in fascinating ways.

The title “Seeing Light, Reading Space” alludes to the artist’s central concern: making the visible readable and the readable visible. For Kowanz, light functions as a medium of reflection—on information, time, communication, and the very limits of our perception. The selected works reflect central themes of her oeuvre: the play with codes, reflections, and spatial expansion, as well as her precise material aesthetics and conceptual clarity.

Häusler Contemporary has enjoyed a long-standing and close relationship with Brigitte Kowanz and is proud to continue making her work visible.

An early work from 1989, SEK, marks a pivotal moment in Brigitte Kowanz’s engagement with text and light as equally significant means of expression. The combination of neon tube, lacquer, and metal references the aesthetics of Minimal Art, while the use of the acronym SEK (Sondereinsatzkommando – Special Task Force) already anticipates her later exploration of linguistic coding and ambiguity.

The use of an acronym that appears both anonymous and charged draws attention to the intersection of language, power, and perception. SEK as a term evokes a specific social reality—that of state surveillance, control, and intervention—yet remains ambiguous through its abstract presentation. In doing so, the work resists clear interpretation and eludes immediate comprehension. Even at this early stage, Kowanz demonstrates her interest in the ambivalence of information: light is not only a medium of visibility, but also one of blinding, obscuring, and manipulation.

A late yet paradigmatic work is Instagram 06.10.2010 (2020). This piece, made of neon, mirror, aluminum, and lacquer, references the launch date of the image-based platform Instagram. In it, Kowanz reflects on the transformation of communication in the digital age: light—in the form of data, displays, and interfaces—has become a vehicle for collective self-representation. By materializing this date as a typographic light object, Kowanz addresses not only the shift in notions of publicity and identity but also the immateriality of digital sign systems.

The works represented by Häusler Contemporary testify to the continuous evolution of Brigitte Kowanz’s artistic practice over several decades. Social, technological, and media-theoretical discourses are translated into a visually reduced yet conceptually layered artistic language. In her work, light is always more than just a medium: it is a carrier of information, meaning—and ultimately, insight.

The question “What is light?” lies at the heart of Brigitte Kowanz’s artistic practice. Her answer: “Light is what we see”—a guiding principle that points to the paradox of light making everything visible while itself usually remaining invisible. The retrospective of the same name at the ALBERTINA traces the work of this important artist from the 1980s onward.

Light—ephemeral, boundless, and immaterial—takes center stage in this exhibition. In specially created mirrored spaces, her light-based artworks are reflected into infinity or revealed only through the use of blacklight.

The show also features iconic works such as Morse Alphabet and Email 02.08.1984 03.08.1984, which presciently address contemporary issues of digitalization, virtualization, and the information society.

(Press release, ALBERTINA Vienna, 2025)