'Great Pretenders/grosse Prätendenten'

'TÜTE MICH EIN!' OLGA HOHMANN'S EXHIBITION TEXT (ORIGINAL IN GERMAN)

Okka-Esther Hungerbühler lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Cooper Union in New York.

Okka-Esther Hungerbühler works with both painting and sculpture to explore different themes. In her paintings, Hungerbühler returns to the shape of the „princess dress“, which she uses abstractly, and depicts rooms as colored sketches of interiors. Her sculptures are creature-like, with a highly simple body shape composed of decorative materials.

Her paintings and creaturely sculptures have been in solo shows, among others, at Avlskarl Gallery Copenhagen 2023: Balloon trapped in Airport Sculpture and 2018: Empty Bars from Above, at artothek Cologne 2022: The Bark Beetle, at Kunstverein Dresden 2022: Nose, in the Haverkampf Leistenschneider Gallery Berlin 2022: One step away from the truth and 2019: I show myself from the most advantageous side, at Sangt Hipolyt Berlin 2021: Okka's dresses, in the Schwartzsche Villa Berlin 2019: Okka-Esther Hungerbühler, the lazy nut, at D.e.l.f. Vienna 2018: Everyone against everyone.

She was represented in various group exhibitions (selection): suns.works Zurich; Kunstverein Schwerin; Municipal Gallery Nordhorn; Elektrohalle Rohmberg Salzburg; House at Lützowplatz Berlin; Gallery Wedding Berlin; KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin; Kressmann Hall Offenbach; Gallery Senn Vienna; Mumok Vienna; Hidari Zingaro Tokyo.

In 2014, Okka-Esther Hungerbühler was awarded the Berlin Art Prize. In 2017 she received the Villa Concordia Prize in Bamberg. In 2018 she was nominated for the Strabag Art Award and in 2021 she received the Berlin Senate research scholarship. In 2022 she received funding from the Kunstfonds Foundation and in 2023 she received a scholarship from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe in New York City. In 2024 she took part in the residency at Forum Schlossplatz Aarau together with Anne Fellner and will reside at CCA Andratx on Mallorca in August.