Adriana Czernin

• 13.05.–04.07.2026

Opening: 12.05.2026, 6–9 pm

Galerie Martin Janda is pleased to present Adriana Czernin's eighth solo exhibition American Flowers from 13th May to 4th July 2026.

From the very beginning, Adriana Czernin’s work has moved between seduction and irritation. The first encounter with the artist in 2000—initially as part of a group exhibition shown in Antwerp and Vienna, and shortly thereafter in her first solo exhibition on the upper floor of the gallery—already revealed a central theme of her work: the exploration of form and structure, beauty and irritation, and the tensions between them.

In both Czernin’s early video works and her drawings, a figure appears embedded in dense, visually overwhelming pictorial worlds—nature, ornamental structures, or plant-like formations. Yet the initial sense of beauty in these environments repeatedly begins to shift. Patterns grow denser, the plant-like elements become clasping; what initially seems alluring takes on an almost oppressive presence. A sense of feeling at the mercy pervades these early works, as does the experience of being absorbed by visual opulence.

In the following years, her focus shifted from the figurative to an in-depth exploration of ornamental systems. Czernin developed a multifaceted investigation of serial structures, which manifested itself particularly in the intensive analysis of an ornament from the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo. The starting point was the precise mathematical and architectural documentation of this structure, which subsequently not only became the foundation for new visual worlds but was also deliberately fractured, shifted, and deconstructed.

Later, Adriana Czernin increasingly moved away from this explicit ornamentation. Her works became more direct and immediate in their engagement with form and shape itself. Rhythms began to falter, and strict orders were undermined by something organic, almost rampant. Soft, flowing forms encountered angular compositions; the pictorial spaces seemed like battlegrounds for opposing forces.

The new works continue these developments. Floral elements return—not as motifs in the classical sense, but as rhythmic movements within the composition. Flowers appear multiplied, arranged in a serial pattern. At the same time, the works possess a new openness: the foreground and background do not merge, but assert themselves in relation to one another. Elements emerge, recede, and overlap without relinquishing their individuality.

The paintings also reveal a particular intensity in their color palette: vibrant shades of pink and violet meet deep hues of brown and blue. Nothing about this feels harmonious; rather, it creates friction, tension, and a peculiar inner movement. The floral elements seem less to be blooming than to be emerging—fragile formations within a dense, almost tectonic structure.

While earlier phases of her work were often characterized by structural density, these pieces allow for a greater degree of instability and movement. The visual language appears more open, less controlled.

Czernin’s work consistently revolves around the question of the relationship between surface and depth, between perfect order and its opposite. The allure of ornamental systems is always in dialogue with the sense of their shadow, their brittleness.

American Flowers appears less as a return to earlier phases of her work than as a transformation of a formal vocabulary developed over a long period of time. The paintings bear traces of her past works while simultaneously opening up a new space—a space in which ornamentic, floral structures, and painterly freedom come into a fragile, vibrant balance.