Three former students of Nick Oberthaler – Lise Lebleux, Clara Lemercier Gemptel, and Ugo Sébastião – had the opportunity to participate in an artist residency in Bad Ischl in 2024. This residency enabled the invited artists to deeply engage with the geographic and cultural identity of the Salzkammergut region and to develop new works on-site. The artworks created during the residency were presented in an exhibition alongside Nick Oberthaler’s works in the Post Office building in Bad Ischl.
Nick Oberthaler’s artistic practice explores the function of abstract painting as a medium for visual and spatial experiences. His works draw on visual codes and parameters from image theory, the digital realm, and institutional contexts. For the exhibition at the Post Office building in Bad Ischl, Oberthaler conceived a new series that references the visual identity of the city. Using compositional methods of abstraction, he created paintings that intertwine representational modes and design elements of flags with the processual nature of painting.
Lise Lebleux works primarily with field recordings, creating sound topologies that capture the unique atmospheres of various spaces. Each sound piece is an audio record of a specific, singular environment, capturing its distinct acoustic qualities. Her audio installation “Sounds of the Valley” specially designed for the stairwell of the Post Office building, captures the unique sounds of the Salzkammergut region. Her compositions have been featured at Radiophrenia in Glasgow, *Duu Radio in Paris, and Montez Press Radio in New York. In 2023, she held her first institutional solo exhibition at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof in Hamburg, and in the summer of 2024, she will develop a new composition for ORF/Ö1 Kunstradio.
Clara Lemercier Gemptel’s film and photography practice centers on themes of gender and identity construction and the relationship between architecture and the human body. For the exhibition in Bad Ischl, she created a series of photographs that explore mining, a theme closely tied to the identity of the Salzkammergut region. Her recent short film, TEAM SPIRIT, was selected for the official program of the Si Cinema Festival at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In fall 2024, she will present a new film production at the 17th Lyon Biennale.
Ugo Sébastião is a painter whose work investigates the material aspects of panel painting, examining its physical characteristics in relation to (art) historical significance. He questions and analyzes different technological conditions of painting, including the support, ground, framing, and installation. This approach led to a new series of small-format paintings on wood, titled “in between,” which examines the interplay of materiality and composition. These works reflect a baroque influence and demonstrate a deep interest in the textural and material qualities of painting. In 2022, he participated in the Artist in Residence Program at Palazzo Monti in Brescia and has had solo exhibitions at Alice Amati Gallery in London (2023) and Pal Project in Paris (2022).
