Simon Quendler pushes the boundaries of painting – his “reactive images” turn materials and processes into protagonists.
Austrian artist Simon Quendler (born 1983 in Wernberg, near Villach) radically redefines the concept of painting. His works are not finished images but living processes that reveal the agency of matter – a silent, poetic revolt against the expected.
“Painting is not a finished image, but a living event.”
For more than two decades, Simon Quendler has been working in Vienna. His studio resembles a laboratory more than a traditional workspace. There, he lets colors, chemicals, and organic substances interact – not as tools, but as autonomous actors. Substances like potassium sorbate, cadmium sulfide, or volcanic ash react, crystallize, crack, and form layers.
The artist is not the sole creator, but an instigator, setting processes in motion whose outcome he cannot fully control.
“Quendler insists on unpredictability. His paintings carry the risk of disobedience.”
Exhibitions such as “Reaktionen” at Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien (2017) showcased this dynamic: works that evolved over the course of the show.
In a time when the art market demands smoothness and perfection, Quendler resists with fragile, resistant, poetic works. They speak of transience, control, and autonomy while posing questions beyond painting itself: How do we deal with resources? What happens when we allow things the time to unfold their own processes?
Up close, his surfaces recall microscopic worlds, geological formations, or biological growth. From a distance, they appear as atmospheric fields with a metaphysical aura.
Curatorially, Quendler’s work updates historical discourses on Art Informel and post-war material aesthetics, but shifts them into a contemporary register infused with ecological and societal concerns.
Thus, his works are neither just objects nor mere processes, but manifestations of an attitude: art as transformation.
Simon Quendler’s silent revolt lies in resisting predictability and putting the vitality of matter at the center. His painting is an open system that invites us to linger, to look closely, and to recognize becoming itself as an aesthetic value.
