Daniela Trinkl works in the fields of sculpture and installation. She studied art history at the University of Vienna (2016, BA) and Plastic Conceptions at the University of Arts Linz (MA) with Prof. Frank Louis, where she graduated with distinction at the end of 2023. In 2024, Trinkl was awarded the Diözesankunstpreis Linz. She has received various work and travel grants, such as the travel grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture (BKA Österreich), and has participated in several Artist-in-Residence programs, including the KUNSTSAMMLUNG of the State of Upper Austria at Salzamt Linz (2019) andPILOTENKUECHE Leipzig (2019).
Trinkl's works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Austria and abroad. Her latest projects include FRAU* schafft Raum — a project against violence against women (2024, Vienna), Parallel Vienna (2022, Artist Statement), Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden (2022), and House of Losing Control/Vienna Art Week (2021).
The artist is a member of the Künstlerhaus Wien, forum - Kunstuniversität Linz and SALOON Vienna.
Artist Statement
They are smooth as well as uneven, soft as well as hard, simple as well as exuberant. In my sculptural and installative works I use both natural as well as artificial materials, whereby the plastic polyurethane foam plays a central role. The objects create an uncertainty as to whether they are organically grown or highly technically produced. Their hybrid appearance opens up a visual language between artificial and alive, alluring and bizarre. Thus they become creatures of an unknown science fiction world.
The starting point of these works is the exploration of human´s creative and inventive endevours in the context of technological developments. My focus lies on the question of a synthetic existence, which I explore both critically and humorously. I am interested in the idea of the artificial creation of life and its controllability. By means of exaggeration, distortion and alienation I create a whimsical moment in my sculptures, which manifests their dystopian potential. I understand humor as a response to an attitude arguing to have everything under control. In this sense, my work adresses
ecological, biotechnological as well as feminist and mythological contexts.
