Maike
Pichler

Awards and exhibitions:

Currently Art on view at Schwanthaler Galerie Gmunden, Austria

Aug 2023 Solo exhibition "Contemporary Ceramic Art" in collaboration with Schwanthaler Galerie in Gmunden, Austria

Member of "Gmundner Kunstverein" since summer 23 (local art association)

Member of "Hausruckviertler Kunstkreis" since Oct 23 (local art association)

June 2023 Group exhibition "Water - Life" at Castle Orth, Austria

June 2023 World Art Awards 2023 sixth place "Innovative" and fifth place "Sculpture - Non Representation"

Vita

Born and raised in a little mid-german village in the country by loving parents with a two year younger sister I was cradeled and happy. After loosing the father in my teenage years the mother alone was struggling to support us and the house we were born in. The moment I finished highschool I started nursing school in the big city of Frankfurt am Main living in the cheapest apartment available and carriyng my own weight while supporting my mother. After she sold the house and found a new partner and my little sister started university I found my love in another german speaking country and soon moved to austria to live with my partner who loves and supports me since, working as a registered nurse. The cardiology department was my first ward and after eigt years I wanted a challenge, so I started at an ICU. That Unit soon turned out to be the specialized Covid ICU of the hospital group I worked for. And Covid hit us hard. After some traumatic experiences I rediscovered my artistical side I left behind when joining the workforce. With over 30 years of age I began working with stoneware, the first contact with that material was in a rehabilitation facility. Since that moment I was hooked. All my emotions and my critical worldview just float into my artworks. I listen to the claybody to mold it into the shapes I want from it, testing and probing the capacities of the material, experimenting. If you havent worked with stoneware you cannot know what it is able to do. Magically in a process and relationship with the clay a story begins to form that your own hands are able to tell. The result is alsways fascinating to me. The result mirrors the facettes of toughts I have while creating this art. The result is always so full of movement and stories, criticism and emotion. Whatever hits me most when looking at the whole piece will be brought to light for other viewers by a combination of glaze (Widhalm stains mixed by myself to my individual liking), oxide wash and natural stoneware. Carved in the artpiece my stories remain whole if the kiln gods are willing. I require the use of another worspaces electrical kiln until its bisque fired and finally done. 

Only last year I started my own business, before that my art was "just" a hobby for me. I have not won any prizes yet nor did anyone important recognize my work. The only thing I know is that those pieces are my life and my ardour and the passion I feel in those thousands of workshop hours is different than anything else I experienced before. I am so thankful to be able to create these artworks with my own two hands and can sometimes be in awe of my own creations.