Hannah
Stippl

Born in Vienna, Hannah Stippl studied philosophy, art history and painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Here she earned her doctorate in the field of landscape theory in 2011. From 2005-2017, she taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the Department of Landscapedesign/art. Her theoretical preoccupation with cultural-historical and ecological aspects of plants, gardens and landscapes fundamentally influences her artistic work. Hannah Stippl also curated numerous exhibitions and runs the exhibition space puuul in Vienna.

In recent years she has focused on exploring structures such as thickets, embankments or overgrown slopes. Each project consists of a series of works on paper and canvas with a specific inspiration. Her paintings build up layer upon layer, and since she is working on many pieces at the same time, that can take years. New paintings are started unintentionally: some colored areas, patterns, overlays. Compositions are built up by overlapping layers of paint with the help of stencils and historic pattern rollers that she collected for the last twenty years. Over time, the layers entangle and certain atmospheres become perceptible. It is important to her to keep the random, accidental, and inappropriate visible, like spots and graffiti-like fragments, left-overs and stray lines. Words and patterns rely on repetition, like magic spells. In her works, she connects research in fields as mythology, feminism or ecology with individuality, emotion and beauty. Together, these structures evoke ambiguous natural sceneries she is interested in, familiar and alien at the same time.

Throughout her career she blended her love of pattern with a deep interest in landscape and plants. This is what informs her work in the studio, in the garden, and as horticultural installations. She is radical in the most original sense of the word radicalis, which means rooted, connected to the earth, with plants at eye level. Here, the radical is a form of earthly attachment. She thinks of her paintings as growing and evolving, revealing themselves slowly.