Kevin A. Rausch, born in Wolfsberg/Carinthia/Austria /1980

Master of arts Vienna Art School

Lives and works in Vienna

Only at a first glance do the works of Kevin A. Rausch (born in Carinthia, Austria) attest to a brittle, bleak apocalyptic mood; to desolatedness, grey battlegrounds, catastrophes, isolation, and the appendant weltschmerz. Once one takes a closer look, one can discover ironical associations within the collaged landscape with its strange small figures, set pieces, and animals, crossing the grey-and-white ground shades in a cheerful, colourful, and bold way. Here, weltschmerz is not spared of irony; gloomy predictions don’t go without a wink. Behind this charmingly shy coquetry, a serious, straightforward access to painting and drawing, in the sense of an artistic method, consequently developed over the years, is concealed.
Kevin A. Rausch’s subtle works, which can be classified between neo-retro and modernity, are convincing due to their melancholic coherence, their fine nuances and layers and, most of all, by their boldly drawn lines. Their aim is not the irruption of a manipulative frenzy in colour, or a move to pure abstraction, but to include refined qualities which are united, forming a distinctive poetic. Sometimes the desire of an inwardly traveller and disrupted figure to settle down is noticeable, even if it is obstructive.

Barbara Baum, Curator, Vienna 2015