Sophia Steinwender was born in Klagenfurt on May 9, 2003 and grew up on a farm in Zweinitz in the Gurktal. In elementary school she attended the children’s painting school and won several drawing competitions, but her further school career had nothing to do with an art focus. This awakened a strong desire to be creative in her free time, and her parents always provided her with all the materials she needed, which was very helpful. Moving to Vienna at the age of 18 and seeing the world was inspiring and the increasing number of requests for commissioned paintings motivated Sophia. When the artist completed her training as a graphic designer, she realized that it was fun to stick to the rules of good design, but she was more interested in exploring the boundlessness of art. Steinwender´s last exhibition took place at the Fluc as part of the 11th edition of “Art Attech”.
She thinks that developing your of own style is certainly not easy and this process will never be complete. Especially in times of social media, where numerous talented artists show their work every day, it is hard to stand out and develop a signature or brushstroke that is unmistakable. But it’s much smarter to focus on yourself instead of comparing yourself anyway.
For Sophia, an essential part of creating her art is to give herself completely to what she doing and not think about what might be right or wrong, good or bad. It’s all about the feeling and the emotions inside, to create and knowing what to portray at that particular moment.
Steinwender´s aim is to capture moments with her pictures, both the moment depicted and the moment of creation. The color becomes an alphabet, from which she repeatedly takes individual letters and hopes that a poem will emerge in the end. Of course, this process involves a lot of mistakes, but it wouldn’t be her style to plan everything from start to finish.
