THOMAS LAUBENBERGER-PLETZER

born in 1969 in kitzbühel, he studied with michelangelo pistoletto at the academy of fine arts in vienna. his work is characterised by drawing and the exclusive use of the line. the drawn line as an original, minimal and immediate artistic means of expression and the space surrounding it in the form of the white sheet of paper are the artist’s two central media. with a conceptual approach and a reduced approach, he asks fundamental questions about the function and the creative possibilities of the line. on the basis of these, investigations are made into everyday things, basic structures and spaces, existing pictorial motifs as well as writing and language.

using black fineliner on a4 paper, groups of works are created such as the ‘outlines’ as freehand drawings – but deliberately avoiding any ‘handwriting’ – or the serial ‘constructions’ drawn with the ruler. another group shows ‘script-pictures’ made of alphabets with square or cubic small letters specially developed by the artist. these are limited to straight lines on the borderline between abstract geometric and legible signs. they enable him to sound out border areas between script, pattern, image, space … his work is always about questioning perception and visual habits with minimal means.

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