Peter Kogler Uses Optical Illusions to Transform Museums Into Works of Art

Peter Kogler Uses Optical Illusions to Transform Museums Into Works of Art

By Matthew Reitman
ING Art Center, Brussels, 2016. (Vincent Everarts)
ING Art Center, Brussels, 2016. (Vincent Everarts)

 

When visiting a Peter Kogler exhibition, you might think you made a wrong turn into a hall of mirrors. It’s actually his art.

What M.C. Escher did with his trippy drawings, Kogler does on walls, floors, and ceilings. For more than 30 years, the Austrian artist has been transforming subways, art museums, and lobbies using computer-generated optical illusions. Kogler also uses projections and silkscreens that morph solid structures into abstract, sinuous surfaces.

Austrian artist Peter Kogler in his Vienna studio in 2010. (Didi Sattmann/Imagno/Getty Images)
Getty Images

 

Viewers of Kogler’s art get the rare chance to walk around inside a piece of art. Kogler challenges a viewer’s sense of depth, place, and maybe sanity via black-and-white patterns that appear to have a life of their own.

Clearly inspired by minimalism and pop art, Kogler’s recent works utilize architecture, cinema, and new media.

 

 

In his earlier works, the Austrian artist would employ objects and shapes that viewers would recognize, like ants and light bulbs. He’s also dabbled in metal sculptures. But Kogler’s floor-to-ceiling illusions are the most hypnotic.

Last year, Kogler’s work was featured in an exhibition at the ING Art Center in Brussels, Belgium. Prior to that, his mind-bending art has been on display at ERES Stiftung in Germany, the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art in Croatia, and the Berardo Museum in Portugal.

See more of Kogler’s work below. Learn more about the artist here.

MSU, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, 2014 (Atelier Kogler)
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 2010, Projection (Atelier Kogler)
DIRIMART Gallery, Istanbul, 2011 (Atelier Kogler)
Visitors go into the arrival hall of the newly renovated railway station where painting by Peter Kogler are exhibited in Graz, October 9, 2003. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
ING Art Center, Brussels, 2016. (Vincent Everarts)
Galerie Mezzanin, Wien, 2010 (Galerie Mezzanin)
Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, 2014. (Atelier Kogler)

RealClearLife Staff

Exit mobile version