Biography
After graduating with a bachelor degree in art history from the University of Vienna in 2016, Trinkl completed a master's degree in sculptural conceptions at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz with Prof. Frank Louis, where she graduated in 2023 with distinction.
In 2024 Daniela Trinkl was awarded the sponsorship award Diözesankunstpreis Linz. The artist has shown her work in numerous national and international exhibitions. Her recent projects include Parallel Vienna (2022, Artist Statement), Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden (2022) and House of losing control/Vienna Art Week (2021). The artist received various work and travel grants, including a travel grant from the Austrian Federal Chancellery. In addition, she was selected to take part in several artist-in-residence programs, such as the art collection of the state of Upper Austria in the Salzamt Linz and the renowned PILOTENKUECHE in Leipzig. Trinkl has taken part in artist talks, such as Talk at Kunstquartier Alte Handelsschule Leipzig, and was invited to talk about her work on the Austrian cultural radio station Ö1 in the programme series Leporello. Trinkl's works can be found in both private and public collections such as the Dr. Hans Hoch Foundation in Neumünster/D.
Photo credits Joanna Pianka
Artist Statement
They are smooth as well as uneven, soft as well as hard, simple as well as exuberant. In my sculptural and installative works I use both natural as well as artificial materials, whereby the plastic polyurethane foam plays a central role. The objects create an uncertainty as to whether they are organically grown or highly technically produced. Their hybrid appearance opens up a visual language between artificial and alive, alluring and bizarre. Thus they become creatures of an unknown science fiction world.
The starting point of these works is the exploration of human´s creative and inventive endevours in the context of technological developments. My focus lies on the question of a synthetic existence, which I explore both critically and humorously. I am interested in the idea of the artificial creation of life and its controllability. By means of exaggeration, distortion and alienation I create a whimsical moment in my sculptures, which manifests their dystopian potential. I understand humor as a response to an attitude arguing to have everything under control. In this sense, my work adresses ecological, biotechnological as well as feminist and mythological contexts.