Vija Celmins has been known since the 1970s for her evocative subjects—oceans, deserts, night skies, and spider webs—which she renders in a variety of media.

In her first solo exhibition in Austria, the artist presents over 70 works from her body of printmaking. Curated by Vija Celmins herself, the retrospective at the Secession spans five decades of her work: from etchings from her student days in the early 1960s to a series of new, previously unseen editions.

Vija Celmins’ motifs are based on photographs and found printed matter: she isolates these sources from their original context and brings them together again in a new medium. Through the repeated interpretation of a few motifs, she shifts the focus from the motif to the material, which she examines in terms of its specific characteristics and its effect. Within the wide range of media in which Celmins works, printmaking therefore holds great significance: it stands on equal footing with drawing, painting, and sculpture. To accompany the exhibition, an artist’s book by Vija Celmins will be published, featuring not only reproductions of her works but also a selection of previously unpublished diary entries containing poetic reflections and musings on aesthetics from the past decades.