Emma KLING

KLING Emma_11_Angst 2._2026_olaj fa panelen_60x40 cm copy

Angts 2., 2026

oil on wood panel, 60×40 cm

About the artist

Emma Kling (1996)’s artistic practice centers on the processes of translation and transformation between painting, sculpture, installation, and text. She conceives of her works as open spaces of inquiry, where personal experience and theoretical research intertwine and mutually shape one another. Her paintings are created on canvas and wood, but also take the form of sculptural elements, installations, texts, and publications. 

The process of self-discovery, the perception of the body, and its continuous transformation play a prominent role in her work. A recurring motif is the “snail-shaped changing room”, familiar from the beaches of Lake Balaton, which serves as a metaphor for transience, metamorphosis, and the shifting states of identity. The tension between the private and the public, the internal and the external, and protection and vulnerability is a defining organizing principle in her work. Her paintings often feature fluid forms, multiple perspectives, shadows, absence, and negative spaces. She is particularly interested in everything that remains hidden or becomes visible only indirectly: the imprints of the body, shadow as a psychological and social metaphor, and the visual representation of invisible labor and experiences.

Kling’s pictorial and spatial works often step outside the traditional framework of painting, placing the viewer in situations that are at once playful, sensitive, and unsettling. Each of her exhibitions can be interpreted as a temporary stage in an ever-evolving process of research and creation.

STUDIES
2025 -
Akademie der Bildende Künste Wien (PhD)

2018 - 2024
Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien

2022
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
 

AWARDS
 
2024
Vanessa Preger-McGillivray Award
 
2025
Esterhazy Art Award, shortlist
 
 
 

EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
 
2026    Oykos, Artemis Gallery, Vienna
2026    Inner Spaces, Rechnitzer Gallery, Budapest
2025    Dog Ears, Fiala Hof, Vienna
2025    All this trouble for a comb, Stein*Stein, Krems
2025    Canapé Height Understory, Hollerei Galerie, Vienna
2025     I saw it all around me, Warbling, London
2025     What We Believe In, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2025     Why am I soft I the Middle, Halfsister Space, Berlin
2024     No time to nurse Chimeras, Dito, Vienna
2024     Zürcher Kantonalbank YoungART Lounge, Vienna
2024     Tracing the Ethereal, Parat, Zürich
2023     Afterwit & Aftersun, Parallel Vienna, Vienna
2023     Leerstoff", Gmünd
2023     Apoll seized by a guilty conscience, Apollo Garage, Vienna
2023     Parallel Vienna Editions, with Galerie Rudolf Leeb, Neuer Wiener Kunstverein, Vienna
2022     Cloudcover, Kumano Mie, Japan
2022     Dear Martha, turn around, NewNow Artspace, Frankfurt am Main
2022     Die Bibliothek von Babel“ Charim Factory, Vienna
2022     Auf der Suche nach einem Kulturellen Attraktor /off image / II.Akt, Mauve, Vienna
2021      Wear Out, Galerie Rudolf Leeb, Vienna
2020     Creating Space“ Galerie Jonathan Seiffert, Vienna

Artworks

KLING Emma_1_Phantom Limbs 8._2025_olaj cseresznyefán, bükk_35x23x25 cm_ copy

Phantom Limbs 8., 2025

oil on wood, 35×23×25 cm

KLING Emma_3_Phantom Limbs 11_2025_olaj fenyőfán, diófa, juharfa_30x21x15 cm copy

  Phantom Limbs 10., 2024

oil on wood, 35×23×11cm

KLING Emma_8_Phantom Limbs5_2024_olaj, cseresznyefa_30x20x16 cm copy

  Phantom Limbs 5., 2024

oil on wood, 30×20×16 cm

KLING Emma_7_Köszöbtárgy_olaj fa panelen_60x40cm copy

Threshold Object, 2026

oil on wood, 60×40cm

KLING Emma_9_Csigaöltöző_2026_olaj, fa, acél_200x165x130 cm copy

Spiral Changing Room, 2026

oil, wood, steel, 200×165×130cm

KLING Emma_10_Angst 1._2026_olaj fa panelen_60x40 cm copy

  Angts 1., 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

KLING Emma_11_Angst 2._2026_olaj fa panelen_60x40 cm copy

  Angts 2., 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

KLING Emma_13_You can‘t ghost a ghost 8._2026_olaj fa panelen_60x40 cm Large copy

  You Can‘t Ghost a Ghost 7., 2026

oil on wood, 60×40cm

KLING Emma_15_Car Headrest 5_2026_olaj dió-, cseresznye-, juharfán_24x18x4cm_ copy

  Car Headrest 5., 2026

oil on wood, 24×18×4cm

KLING Emma_19_You can‘t ghost a ghost 3._2025_olaj, vászon_180×130 cm copy

  You Can‘t Ghost a Ghost 3., 2025

oil on canvas, 180×130 cm

KLING Emma_20_You can‘t ghost a ghost 4._2025_olaj, vászon_180×130 cm copy

  You Can‘t Ghost a Ghost 4., 2025

oil on canvas, 180×130 cm

KLING Emma_21_Rendszerváltás_2026_olaj, fa_60x40cm

Systemchange, 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

KLING Emma_23_Rendszerváltás 2._2026_olaj, fa_60×40 cm

Systemchange 2., 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

KLING Emma_24_Rendszerváltás 3._2026_olaj, fa_60×40 cm copy

Systemchange 3., 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

KLING Emma_26_Threshold Twins_2026_olaj, pamut_170×120cm copy

Threshold Twins, 2026

oil on cotton, 170×120 cm

KLING Emma_25_All This Trouble for a Comb_2025_olaj, fa_40×25cm copy

  All This Trouble for a Comb, 2025

oil on wood, 40×25cm

KLING Emma_22_Dealing in Splendour_2026_olaj, fa_60x40cm copy

  Dealing in Splendour, 2026

oil on wood, 60×40 cm

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Exhibitions

csapo_juli_encounter_honlapra_thumb

Inner Spaces
26 March – 14 May 2026

Rechnitzer Gallery's next exhibition brings together the works of three young artists in dialogue with each other – alongside Eszter KÁLÓCZY, who has already exhibited at the gallery, the works of Júlia CSAPÓ and Emma KLING will be on display for the first time. In their paintings, pictorial objects, and installations, different interpretations of outside and inside enter into dialogue: internal, subjective spaces enter into constant tension with the external environment, which can be described and understood objectively.