The Austrian Cultural Forum London is delighted to open our 2025 exhibition programme with a very special exhibition. Painting Sculpture unites the works of Franz West and Sophie Barber highlighting the intersection of painting and sculpture.

Inspired by West’s pink outdoor sculptures at his 2019 Tate Modern retrospective, Barber created a series of small-scale works referencing his name and art. The exhibition juxtaposes West’s iconic Passstücke with Barber’s sculptural paintings, emphasizing the tactile qualities of both artists’ practices. Barber’s newly created works for this show debut alongside West’s iconic Passstücke and further sculptures, inviting audiences to explore art as sensory, participatory objects.

Sophie Barber (b. 1996, Hastings, UK) is a painter who draws directly from the world around her, reproducing natural and manmade fragments in an attempt to preserve and process their forms. Her playful process of reduction is most evident in her miniature works, painted on tightly wrapped scraps of recycled canvas. On these textured, impastoed surfaces, she reinterprets the sculptural forms of renowned male figures such as Giotto, Sol LeWitt, and, most frequently, Franz West, humorously shrinking and abstracting their works to loose, gestural scribbles and deliberately imperfect marks.

Emerging in the early 1970s, Franz West (1947–2012) is one of Austria's most celebrated artists. He developed a unique aesthetic that engaged equally high and low reference points and privileged social interaction as an intrinsic component of his work, thereby calling attention to the larger context of exhibition and the way in which viewers interact with works of art and with each other. Full bio

This exhibition is made possible with the support and cooperation of Alison Jacques, David Zwirner and the Franz West Privatstiftung

Bookings are for the private view on Thursday 27 February, 6 - 9pm

The exhibition will be open to the public Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm (last entry 4.30pm) and during evening events.