The year started out with a “bang” for DOEprojekts (Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering)! Opportunity knocked in January, and we answered. (And it was not until July that we “caught our breath.”)
Through networking and diligence, and with the help of our New York friend, Ronnie Glattauer and her Viennese nephew-in-law, Walter Glattauer, (and his artist-friend, Peter Baldinger), DOEprojekts was invited by Vienna-based gallerist Michael Bella to install a two-week solo exhibition at “Bellart Galerie” near the world-renowned Upper Belvedere Museum (famous for Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss).
Above left: Exterior of Bellart Galerie. Above Right: Deborah and Glenn Doering, with gallerist Michael Bella in between, in front of the gallery.
Above: Bellart Galerie’s invitation to the opening of “Eye Eat Too.”
Our exhibition, titled “Eye Eat Too,” included a series of monoprints of DOEprojekts’ Coreforms that reference dinner plates, visualizing a German maxim about the aesthetic presentation of food on a plate, “Das Auge isst mit” – translated in English as “the eye eats too.”
Thus, with aesthetic art works and edibles as our theme, we prepared to fly to Vienna with our monoprints and three dozen home-baked, fondant-covered cookies (and a collection of edible-ink pens). Our goal was to offer community participation at the “Eye Eat Too” opening, a trademark of our socially-engaged DOEprojekts. Special thanks to artist friend Beatriz Ledesma for assisting in the cookie creation (and for cat sitting while we were gone).
Above: Deborah and Beatriz apply the white fondant to our home-baked cookies. We wrapped each cookie individually, and then carefully packed them in a box lined with bubble-wrap.
Just as we had hoped, our “Eye Eat Too” opening reception was well-attended and many cookies were decorated by attendees with an artistic flare. And we were able to practice our German, and the Viennese were able to practice their English.
Above: Eye Eat Too participants created their own “Coreform Kekse” (cookies) during the opening of the exhibition, some inspired by our monoprints.
More photos from the opening and ongoing exhibition:
Above: Opening of the exhibition “Eye Eat Too”
Above: Six of the 25 monoprints displayed in “Eye Eat Too” at the Bellart Galerie
Above: The exhibition included pieces of broken dinner plates that had been repurposed into neck chains
While in Vienna, of course we “had” to participate in its famous coffee culture. So not once, but twice, we went to Café Hawelka, one of Vienna’s most famous traditional large coffee houses. It has been a meeting place for writers and artists of the past and present - famous, infamous, or still undiscovered - run by the Hawelka family for over 80 years.
So thank you to our new Viennese friends for making this a memorable experience and welcoming DOEprojekts!
