Anouk Lamm Anouk at Galerie 422

FALLING OUT OF WORLDS,

Anouk’s work is rooted in the philosophical stance that no living being stands above another (anti-speciesism), and it advocates for dissolving rigid, ideologically imposed categories. Mutual care between humans and other living beings is central to Anouk’s artistic practice. The exhibition explores connections and interactions between love, companionship, and interconnectedness, sketching out a world where dividing lines begin to dissolve—perhaps even revealing the end of the Anthropocene.

Spread across two floors, visitors are offered a broad insight into the internationally recognized artist’s oeuvre, which spans painting, installation, sculpture, and text. Anouk frequently returns to specific motifs, beings, and rhythms, weaving them into a unique, holistic cosmos.

Embedded within Anouk’s calm visual language is a consistently tender and humorous gaze on major issues of our time—humanity’s relationship with nature and animals, and the visibility and place of queer* individuals and people with disabilities in society. The works invite viewers to pause and live in the moment.

INSTALLATION & SCULPTURE

Spread across both floors, several installations and sculptural objects form an integral part of the exhibition. One is a cradle embedded in a grotto: the first work in the new series titled GOD’S FAVOURITE.
Inside the cradle lies a dove, wrapped in white bed linens. As the first bird domesticated by humans—even before chickens and geese—the dove was a companion and helper (e.g. carrier pigeons). Today, however, they are often driven out of cities and referred to as “rats with wings.” Still, the dove remains a potent symbol of peace and love. In GOD’S FAVOURITE, the dove is once again entrusted to human care and finds comfort and protection in the cradle—something denied to it for too long. The work’s title references Christian iconography, where the dove represents the Holy Spirit. In both title and execution, the work reveals the ambivalence surrounding how other species oscillate between worship and rejection. It poses the question: who is friend, who is foe? Who is pet, who is livestock? These categorizations appear ever-changing and impermanent.

Socio-cultural structures and traditional hierarchies are also questioned in The Herd N°2, a sculptural installation of transparent sky-horses. In Greek mythology, the sky-horses pull the chariot of the god Helios, symbolizing the sun’s passage from east to west, from dawn to dusk—a metaphor for transience. These mythological beings are both present and absent. Their translucent materiality and minimal figurativeness represent their absence in our physical world and their presence in our imagination, myths, and stories.

The horse herd also serves Anouk as a symbol of matriarchy. Unlike most human societies, horse herds are matriarchal—led by an experienced mare whose authority stems from inner calm. This contrasts with human concepts of leadership, often rooted in action, dominance, and superficial associations with masculinity.

Resting peacefully nearby lies an oversized lamb, its head on an armchair. In The Lamb That Falls From the Worlds and in the 2023 Venice installation Humans Welcome N°1 (with dog sculptures and carpet landscapes), animal figures reclaim gallery spaces and turn the world upside down—animals take up space and welcome humans into it. The carpets aim to convey comfort and a sense of home—concepts that are not always granted to queer individuals or minorities, but which are worth fighting for in a pluralistic society.

Another installation, 13 Lambs, is a long-term series that Anouk has been developing for ten years and is shown publicly for the first time. It is Anouk’s first series dealing centrally with anti-speciesism. Fourteen plastic bags hang in two rows on nails. Thirteen of them contain a lamb; the fourteenth contains production waste. From a distance, the lambs appear sterile and identical—like packaged meat in a supermarket. Up close, however, each reveals its individuality: different faces, personalities, and needs. The sweetness of the lambs is disrupted by the aesthetic of industrial production.

Also part of the exhibition is a brass wall sculpture from the series I miss the Place where I am from. Related to the black, oversized lamb “falling from the worlds,” this brass lamb appears to fall—or perhaps float—between two realms. Anouk first developed this motif at age 20 and felt a connection to it long before understanding why. Later, receiving an autism diagnosis in their twenties gave the work new depth. Many autistic individuals describe a sense of “Wrong Planet Syndrome”—feeling as if they were born on the wrong planet. The motif now resonates even more deeply.

PAINTING

Anouk Lamm Anouk also creates space for queer individuals through painting. In the series Lesbian Jazz, figuration (lesbian visibility on canvas) and abstraction (the translation of jazz music into abstract painting) are brought together. The bodies Anouk draws and paints are predominantly female—sometimes genderless or androgynous. Faces or facial features are rarely included and are often deliberately left out, creating space for viewers to adopt a lesbian, queer perspective or even see themselves reflected in the work.

In several series, such as Human/Horse or Human/Hound, animals become subjects in the paintings. Symbolically, they function as mirrors and companions in a world still shaped by social marginalization. From a young age, animals offered Anouk a sense of grounding; they were beings she understood effortlessly and who, to this day, evoke a deep feeling of comfort and safety in her.

Safety, stillness, and the intention to live in the present moment are recurring elements in Anouk’s work—and in her daily life. In the purely abstract series post/pre, abstracted ornamental forms are accompanied by recurring circles, glows, and fog-like elements that draw the viewer’s gaze toward the center of the paintings. In post/pre, Anouk explores emptiness as the foundation of fullness, referencing Zen Buddhist philosophy, which teaches that nothingness is everything. Emptiness as the basis for abundance and the richness of being. Emptiness as the ultimate “non-space” preserved on canvas.

These so-called “non-spaces” function for Anouk as portals to another world—spaces intended to help viewers momentarily forget the digital realm and its distractions, all that has been, and all that is yet to come, in order to fully arrive in the here and now.
post/pre literally translates to “before/after,” with the slash “/” symbolizing the fleeting moment we are in—the present instant that constitutes life itself.

Photos by Karin Hackl

Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong, H Queen’s,

Photos by Simon Veres

Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn, September 2024 to March 2025

Starting with the positions of the 1970s such as Sanja Iveković, Ulrike Rosenbach and Annegret Soltau and Viennese Actionism with Günter Brus, through the immersive exploration of Georg Herold to the latest self-portraits by Louisa Clement and the latest installation by Anouk Lamm Anouk – ‘MOTHER’ brings together perspectives from artists of different generations. 

The result is a tableau of fragile beauty that thematises motherhood as a radical physical and emotional experience as well as questioning the social and political demands of motherhood and parenthood and presenting new forms of family relationships. Hardly any other social task is scrutinised, commented on and judged as critically as the relationship between parents and their children, and for women in particular there seems to be no space between raven mother and tradwife. 

Photos by Mareike Tocha

From Humans, Horses and Hounds
Patricia Low Contemporary Venezia, 14.09-24.11.2024
Text by Gemma Rolls-Bentley
Anouk Lamm Anouk’s exhibition From Humans, Horses and Hounds explores the artist’s interest in a profound connection between lesbianism and animal liberation. Anouk has transformed the gallery from a traditional white cube into a homely, inviting environment carpeted with Persian rugs and lined with new paintings in their distinctive palette of muted, natural tones. Three life-like sculptures of dogs sit on the carpets amongst the paintings; a yorkshire terrier greets visitors as they walk into the gallery and two poodles observe the paintings in the exhibition. Like everything in the show, the dogs are carefully positioned to create a welcoming space that feels different to the hostilities of the outside world. The carpets, which Anouk sourced from across their home town of Vienna, bring a softness and informality to the gallery, inviting viewers to sit on the floor. We are encouraged to spend time together, with other humans and animals, in a communal space that feels safe, that feels like home. As a queer person, Anouk is conscious of being excluded from many mainstream contexts that are not accepting of their identity. Formany LGBTQIA+ people home does not necessarily feel safe or welcoming, which means new homes must be forged creatively, built on the foundations of community and connections with like minded individuals.
For Anouk, those early meaningful connections were not found with other humans but with animals. They believe their ability to better relate to animals rather than humans is connected to their autism. Animals are now central to their life – they share their home with cats and dogs who accompany them around Vienna. But of course many venues won’t allow animals to enter, Anouk’s choice to place the poodles and terrier in the gallery, both breeds that Anouk has previously lived with, is an attempt to reclaim space for animals. Just as they are reclaiming space for queer people, specifically the lesbians who occupy their paintings. New paintings from three bodies of work hang in the exhibition; ‘Lesbian Jazz’, ‘Human/ Horse’ and ‘Human/Hound’. The Lesbian Jazz paintings feature lesbian figures sharing intimate moments surrounded by words like ‘finally safe’ and ‘this is home’. The figures are deliberately neutral, they are devoid of distinguishing features, offering viewers an opportunity to consider a lesbian viewpoint or even to see themselves in the work. Growing up without queer role models, Anouk feels it is their duty to be visible and share LGBTQIA+ experiences through their work, particularly creating space for androgynous, femme, lesbian and non-binary perspectives.
In both small and large scale paintings, lesbian figures are painted alongside dogs and horses. Painted from the same neutral palette, the human and animal figures merge together with areas of exposed canvas, elements of the natural world coming together as one. Large arched canvases act as portals between worlds, bringing nature into the gallery and inviting viewers to step into the magic. Through painting Anouk explores the kinship between lesbians and animals, posing the question, is it their shared marginalisation that connects them? There is a long history of queer people finding solace in the natural world. Animals, landscapes and plantlife offer unconditional acceptance and love, space for healing and spiritual connection. Whilst preparing for the exhibition, Anouk has been researching historical connections between lesbians and animals, and particularly the animal rights movement, as a way to contextualise their own passion for the topic. There are many moments within art, philosophy and culture that the deep rooted connection between lesbians and animals is revealed. Anouk has studied the painting and sculpture of 19th and early 20th century artists, including Romaine Brooks, Lotta Laserstein and Renée Sintenis, who were said to have had relationships with women and who regularly featured animals in their work, often alongside female or gender non-conforming subjects. Anouk has titled an entire body of work ‘For Rosa Bonheur’, after the French painter of animals who lived openly with her female partner and successfully campaigned for a special permit to wear trousers at a time when it was forbidden for women. The celebrated lesbian couple Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas provide inspiration for many contemporary queer creatives and Anouk finds particular interest in the pair’s close relationships with their dogs who often appear in historical accounts of their lives. Another key figure in Anouk’s research is the American sculptor Alice Morgan Wright who founded the Animal Defense League in 1907. The organisation’s mission to promote compassion towards all living beings resonates with Anouk’s own commitment to using their practice to advocate for a fairer, more equitable world for all creatures. Finding evidence that the kinship between lesbians and animals dates back through the centuries seems to have deepened Anouk’s sense of responsibility to share their perspective with the world through their practice. The work that Anouk has made for this exhibition channels the spirit of these historical lesbian figures and is made all the more powerful by a sense of queer ancestral collectivity, a passing of the baton of compassion through time.

Photos by Clelia Cadamuro

BERLIN & VIENNA

13 Lambs is an installation series that I first presented in 2017. The first 13 Lambs installation contained 13 white lambs in plastic bags and a 14th bag containing production waste from the 13 Lambs production. The 14th bag is a reference to the way we as a society treat animals.

This series of works is my first to deal centrally with the topic of spеciеsism and аnti-spеciеsism. We live in a society with a spеciеsist belief system. This means that the laws are interpreted in such a way that animals are things that are below humans and have little to no rights. Antispеciеsism is the opposite philosophy and belief that humans are not above other species and
have no right to еnslаvе, еxploit and kiII other species.

TANG CONTEMPORARY, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Tang Contemporary Art Seoul presents Unpack Reveal Unleash, a new exhibition with 7 different artists – Anouk Lamm Anouk, Diren Lee, Guillermo Lorca, Jangkoal, Jonas Burgert, Olga Esther, and YoonHyup – from October 20 to November 25, 2023.
While facing artworks in the exhibition hall, which are created by different artists with different life experiences and insights, you could listen to the stories hidden inside and could feel the presence of contemporary artists. You will finally find yourself looking at the world with a different point of view, along with the artists’ point of views.

FRAUEN MUSEUM WIESBADEN

post/pre Lesbian Jazz

frauen museum wiesbaden presents the first solo exhibition in a museum by the winner of the Strabag Artaward International 2021, painter and concept artist Anouk Lamm Anouk. With large-format paintings, drawings, and shaped canvases, across a total of three exhibition levels, the museum, founded in 1984, will be presenting the hitherto most extensive overview of the work of Anouk Lamm Anouk. The pieces explore in a subtle and yet highly expressive way the question of identity, queer intimacy, and emancipation from the customary social pigeonholing; indeed, it is the first non-binary position to go on show in frauen museum wiesbaden.

In paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and text pieces Anouk Lamm Anouk explores the meaning of identities and the body in relation to society. In this context, the works do not submit to any ready category either in terms of content or artistically. Rather, they seem to resist any conventional dichotomy, are at one and the same time abstract and yet explicit, silent and yet lucid, reduced and yet highly expressive. They consciously eschew all things concrete or descriptive that usually serve to foster an identity. What holds the artist’s attention is the space in-between, the ultimate non-space that is completely free of and simultaneously free for interpretation and rearrangement. 

Anouk Lamm Anouk sees their identity as non-binary and has for a long time focused on issues of queer intimacy, lesbian visibility, and the emancipation from learned patriarchal structures. For all the intensity of the themes addressed, the formal language is subtle and unobtrusive, while also attesting to an immense concentration. 

Anouk Lamm Anouk is one of the shooting stars of the young Austrian art scene. After studying Fine Art at Berlin’s University of the Arts and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, they graduated from the latter in 2021. Their solo and group shows have included König Gallery Seoul, South Korea (2023); Fundacja Stefana Gierowskiego, Warsaw, Poland (2022); Hotel Sacher, Vienna, Austria (2021); Austrian Cultural Forum, London, England (2020); and Belvedere21 Museum, Vienna (2014). In 2023, alongside participation in other international exhibitions, Anouk Lamm Anouk will be showing at the 8th International Painting Biennial in Chişinău, Moldavia. In 2021, Anouk won the main prize at the prestigious Strabag Artaward International.

© Text Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk and Frauen Museum Wiesbaden
© Images Janine Erkel Courtesy of Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk and Frauen Museum Wiesbaden

KÖNIG SEOUL

For Anouk Lamm Anouk, the temple is not limited to a physical space, it can be omnipresent. For the artist, the temple is a site of peace and tranquillity, a sacred space, and can be consciously seen in contrast to those places that our societies currently construct. This is also how DIFFERENT VISIONS OF TEMPLES can be understood: an overarching concept, embedding the idea of the temple within a given social structure, fostering an intimate relationship to other people and living beings, or even in their absence, in emptiness, peace, and contemplation.

The temple is a recurring element in the works of Anouk Lamm Anouk and is carried through this exhibition by figures and elements that symbolize the temple, of which three temples in particular are presented and made tangible for the viewer. The first temple is found in the abstract work series POST/PRE, which is currently comprised of more than 50 works. As the name of the series suggests, it is about the here and now, that is, what lies between the before and the after; the moment itself is its centre. In many cases, the abstract pictorial worlds feature a ring of fog as their anchor, affecting the viewer as if they were a kind of door or portal into an unknown dimension or a still undiscovered space.

The creative process behind POST/PRE is, for Anouk Lamm Anouk, already a kind of temple, due to the perseverance and contemplation required to produce the works. The strokes contained on the canvases are the result of a conscious act, each placed neatly next to one another in a process that can take from a few days to a few weeks to produce. According to the artist, “I work almost daily, which can mean that I don’t paint a single stroke all day, but still contemplate the works.” In POST/PRE, so-called ultimate “non-spaces” are depicted, the principle being that emptiness serves as the foundation for fullness, and that nothingness is everything. These “non-spaces” are meant to ground the viewer and help them dwell in the moment, anchored in the here and now, leaving the digital and its distractions behind and inviting viewers to linger. In an unmistakable abstract formal language, Anouk Lamm Anouk manages to make theirs an experience of the temple.

The second temple emerges through the herd of transparent abstracted sky horses. The deliberately fragile-looking animals hang in a densely packed arrangement, almost as if floating on the ceiling of the exhibition space. Yet, the herd also appears to be in motion, dynamic in their orientation, moving as a whole towards the exit, directly towards the viewer. But even though the creatures seem dynamic, the herd has something harmonious, calm, and peaceful about it. Celestial horses are to be understood here as mythological creatures that pull the sun chariot of the Greek sun god Helios, symbolizing the passage of time, or the movement of the sun from east to west. The passage of time is exactly what makes the moment central to the works. Anouk Lamm Anouk explains that “What many people may not be aware of, is the fact that the herd is actually a Matriarchy. The herd is led by a mare, and that decision is not one external to the group, but intrinsic to it. It is about clarity, stability, and calmness. Her leadership is the result of being, whereas that of the stallion comes about as a result of action, doing. This element makes horses and their social formation particularly exciting for me in contrast to the way in which our society is organized.” The herd can be said to embody a wish fulfilling image of wanting to be part of a group, of the desire for a functioning, harmonious social structure and togetherness.

The wall installation, GIRL CARES, made of brass fragments, encompasses the third temple. In it, a girl holds a lamb tightly; she carries the animal on her shoulder, heading for a kind of portal, or perhaps a mirror. On the genesis of this work, the artist describes that, “We have forgotten empathy and caring. For me, caring is a step back from the ego, focusing on the big picture. Engaging with someone other than yourself contains elements of both having arrived and peace that engenders.” The installation consists of two identical sets of brass fragments. On the one hand, the individual brass fragments were arranged figuratively – the titular girl and the lamb – and on the other hand, the elements were arranged differently to form an abstract structure. This formation represents a kind of abstracted deduction of the two living beings depicted on the other side. GIRL CARES is about empathy, one of the lost virtues in our society, according to Anouk Lamm Anouk.

© Text Marleen Anouk-Roubik 
© Images Cheonho Ahn Curtesy of König Galerie and Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk

HELIO TOWER, VIENNA

HELIO TOWER BY BEHF ARCHITECTS (STEPHAN FERENCZY), BUWOG, ART BY ANOUK LAMM ANOUK

© Images Sandro Zanzinger Courtesy Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk, BEHF Architects & BUWOG 

PATRICIA LOW CONTEMPORARY, GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND

Titled Lesbian Jazz; meditating in the Alps, the exhibition features works from two signature series: the figurative vignettes of the artist’s 30-strong Lesbian Jazz suite of works, and abstracts from their Zen-derived post/pre series. Executed in acrylic on Belgian linen in neutral tones, scenes of entwined female forms are juxtaposed with excerpts of poetic text – ‘you above me’; ‘skin to skin’ — in a delicate interplay of word and image. The works speak to the artist’s free-flowing, jazz-like draughtsmanship and their subtle treatment of intimacy — part of a stated aim to make visible the day-to-day of queer life and desire. Elsewhere, paintings from post/pre explore, with circular forms seeming to glow with otherworldly light, emptiness as a portal to a further dimension of thought. With this exhibition, the compositional features of both series appear increasingly related — figuration and abstraction beginning to meld.

© Text Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk & Patricia Low Contemporary
© Images Patricia Low Contemporary & Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk

STEFAN GIEROWSKI FOUNDATION, WARSAW

POST/PRE PAINTINGS FROM ANOUK LAMM ANOUK AT STEFAN GIEROWSKI FOUNDATION, WARSAW

© Images Stefan Gierowski Foundation

LANDESTHEATER LINZ CHRIS HARING | PETER I. TSCHAIKOWSKY

Swans, 2022, Textile Sculptures, each around 800cm / 315in hight

© Images Jonatan Salgado Romero

STRABAG KUNSTFORUM

The artistic universe of Anouk Lamm Anouk is one at rest in itself, neither binary nor polarizing. Just as their abstract “post/pre” series evolves around the starting point of a circle set on canvas with water, the Ensō, the expression of the moment and of the ephemeral, Anouk seeks balance in their writings, drawings and paintings. Their intuitive method of composition creates a space that is difficult to grasp, where forms and signs create a world of harmony. Whether in abstract works or in “Lesbian Jazz”, Anouk takes a stand for an open society and the enriching lesbian gaze. Their exploration of sexuality, eroticism, rhythm and liberation opens up new spaces of thinking beyond unreflected, culturally shaped perspectives on the threshold between the self and the others. Anouk is oscillating between cultures, creating a world of diversity and inclusion. Their universe eludes hierarchy and patriarchal structures, is characterized by respect and equality and gives us hope for a different, better world.

— Dieter Buchhart 2022 about Anouk´s work and their solo show at STRABAG Kunstforum 

© Text Dieter Buchhart
© Images Eva Kelety Courtesy of Studio Anouk Lamm Anouk and Strabag Kunstforum

DIPLOMA SHOW AT THE GREAT MABLE HALL AT HOTEL SACHER, VIENNA