According to Laura Windhager, director of Gianni Manhattan gallery, Vienna’s 3rd district is white-hot. “We decided to move away from where the galleries normally are, which is the first district and the fourth. The 3rd district is super central, near lots of artist studios and I found this great space with a weird, edgy entrance.”
She opened her gallery, which is named after her family’s cat, in early 2017 to represent emerging artists. “What threads together all the artists I work with is a shared concern with language, the world we live in, and politics, especially gender politics,” she explains. “It’s important for a young gallery, for me at least, to be outwardly political. It’s not a time to shy away from politics.” In Windhager’s booth, the artist Marina Faust nailed a single black stiletto to the wall; the straps flail out on both sides like injured insect legs. The gesture is simple but effective—charged as it is with implications about beauty standards and the struggle for true gender equality.
Anna Furman