For more than four decades, Elmar Trenkwalder has been convincing with a work of fascinating content and visual ambiguity developed from drawing. With their fantastic, exuberant wealth of detail, his monumental works are reminiscent of magnificent Baroque and Rococo architecture, but also of Asian forms. The development of a construction method that was more architectural than ceramic led to the creation of opulent, expansive sculptures that only experienced static limits due to the virtuoso mastery of the material.

On the occasion of the opening of the White cubes in the north wing of the castle museum, Elmar Trenkwalder's solo exhibition gives an insight into his comprehensive oeuvre with wall works and graphics and opens up the new space with his ceramic sculptures and installations. Most recently, in the year of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024, the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden showed what is probably the most internationally important Austrian artist working in the medium of ceramics in the Gmundner Keramik.

Elmar Trenkwalder, born in 1959, lives and works in Innsbruck. He studied under Max Weiler and Arnulf Rainer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and gained international exposure early on via Cologne and France and has had numerous exhibitions: Aperto 90 Venice Biennale (1990); by Harald Szeemann Austria in the Rose Network MAK Vienna / Wunderkammer Austria Kunsthaus Zurich (1996); Lyon Biennale (1997); Upper Austrian State Museum, Linz (2001 & 2003); Musée de Louvre, Paris (2005); Maison Rouge, Paris (2008); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (2018); Beelden aan Zee, The Hague (2022), etc.