The 21er Haus presents Roland Kollnitz / Hermann Bayer – Chance Acquaintance, an exhibition featuring two dissimilar artists whose kinship is revealed via an interplay of their works. While the sculptor Roland Kollnitz (1972) stands today at the beginning of a promising artistic career with his fragile, minimalist installations, the painterly works of the recently-deceased Hermann Bayer (1936) will be posthumously honoured for the first time in a museum setting.

It was curator Harald Krejci who instigated this “chance acquaintance” by bringing together the two artists at the 21er Haus. Approximately 25 of Bayer’s paintings are embedded within Kollnitz’s installation, which is housed in multiple rooms and contains various sculptures and objects. The exhibition stretches from the Wotruba room via the lower-level courtyard and the small atrium, into the 21er Haus sculpture garden.

A similar usage of forms and sensitive use of diverse materials are common to both artists. However, what connects Kollnitz and Bayer goes beyond formal coincidences. While Roland Kollnitz approaches the subject of painting from a three-dimensional vantage point, Herman Bayer developed two-dimensional spaces from contrasts, whether they were constructive and painterly, or abstract and illusionistic.