Biografie
Nikolaus Gansterer, is an artist and researcher interested in the links between drawing, thinking and action. His practice is grounded in a trans-medial approach, underpinned by conceptual discourse in the context of performative visualization. Across forms of installations and performances he traces the translatability of phenomena of perception into an artistic environment. In his trans-medial work, he focuses on mapping ephemeral and emergent processes unfolding their immanent structures of interconnectedness, questioning the imaginary threshold between nature and culture, art and philosophy. He studied Transmedia Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and completed his studies at the Jan van Eyck Academy at Maastricht in The Netherlands. He is co-founder of the Institute for Transacoustic Research and board member of the Applied Performance Laboratory in Vienna. Since 2007 he is teaching at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna where he was the first Guest Professor for the Artistic Research PhD programme in 2016/17. He is author of the book "Drawing a Hypothesis – Figures of Thought (Springer, 2013) on the ontology of diagrammatic figurations and its use in contemporary art and science. From 2014-2018 he was PI of the artistic research project "Choreo-graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line" (de Gruyter, 2017) developing innovative systems of notation between drawing, writing and choreography. 2019-2025 he is PI of the artistic project "Contingent Agencies" (Hatje Cantz, 2025) for diagramming the emergence of atmospheres and environments. He is co-author of the book "Playing with Ludwig – Figures of Thinking / Jouer avec Ludwig – Figures de pensée" (Dilecta, 2024) together with Klaus Speidel drawing inspiration from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s influential writing by re-enacting his visual thinking through contemporary artistic practices of expanded drawing. Together with Ignacio Farias and Silke Steets, Nikolaus Gansterer is co-author of "Atlas of Spatial Figures", (Jovis, 2025) which explores globalization’s transformations by developing a novel typology of contemporary spatial concepts at the intersection of sociology, anthropology, and geography through storytelling and visual thinking, using Gansterers' three-dimensional table configurations to map complex realities. Nikolaus Gansterer is winner of the City of Vienna Award for Fine Arts (2024); the RC Award of the Society of Artistic Research (2019), and the MAC International Art Award, MAC Metropolitan Art Centre, Belfast (2018). Gansterer is internationally active in performances, exhibitions and lecturing.
