Don't miss all the fun.

The exhibition how’s the surf, opening this Thursday at 8 PM at Galerija Ulika, begins in the artist’s body.
Angelika Wienerroither paints what she feels while surfing the waves on the coast of Costa da Caparica in the Atlantic Ocean. Like bodily memories – recalled, changed, and layered like sediments – sheets of transparent paper are laid one over another, revealing lines of ink. Blue ink is also used to color rough sheets of paper, torn at the edges. The ink has been diluted, and the sheets painted over again and again.

Angelika Wienerroither’s artistic practice is connected to autotheory, a term coined by Lauren Fournier in 2022. Autotheory refers to theoretical reflection through one's own body – through one's own existence in the world in relation to existing theories. Her experiences, thoughts, and emotions are relevant – as is the place she inhabits. What she thinks depends on her position – her art changes when she is close to the sea. Angelika Wienerroither chose to paint on the pier, listening to the waves, breathing in the salty air. She must check the weather forecast – just like for surfing – but is still caught by surprise by rain, wind that blows the paper away, or tides that flood the pier. Her work is created in nature, not separated from it.

Angelika Wienerroither uses calligraphic movement in her painting. Her brushes are attached to wooden sticks, the paper lies on the floor. She paints standing, developing a language for the feeling of being on the crest of a wave – in perfect balance.

Angelika Wienerroither is a visual artist and writer from Austria. Her practice revolves around fluidity, metamorphosis, transformation, and what is yet to become. Her work resists fixed meaning and instead creates spaces of open exploration – exhibitions and lectures that offer impulses rather than conclusions. Rooted in autotheory, Wienerroither places herself at the center of inquiry: her embodied knowledge, memories, and thoughts become sources of knowledge and theory.

Wienerroither works with painting, installation, and poetry. Her exhibitions function as walkable utopias – a lived dream, a space full of potential and new beginnings.

She is currently pursuing a PhD in artistic research at the University of Arts in Linz. In her dissertation, she explores what happens when one views the world from a boat – a continuous inquiry into feminist standpoint theory and how her thoughts and body change while at sea. Her interdisciplinary background includes studies in painting and photography at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, sociology at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, and international business at the University of Applied Sciences Joanneum in Graz.

Over the past ten years, she has exhibited her work internationally – in both traditional institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, the Leopold Museum in Vienna, and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Zagreb, as well as in unconventional spaces like an abandoned worker’s house in a former mill. Residencies in Malta, Finland, and Italy have further shaped her practice. She is a recipient of the Ö1 Audience Award, and her works are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, the City of Salzburg, and the Mozarteum University Salzburg. She also enjoys working collectively: she is a member of the feminist art network EXTRA stark and sailed aboard the steel ship Valiente towards Svalbard.

The exhibition is on view until July 28, 2025.