Ashley Hans Scheirl

A revelatory first monograph on the trailblazing Austrian transgender multimedia artist

Austrian artist Ashley Hans Scheirl (born 1956) overcomes the limitations of medium as fluidly as he deals with gender and cultural norms. This volume, the first comprehensive monograph on his work, contains over 100 images of his genre-bending work.

Scheirl achieved international fame in the late 1980s for his experimental films and videos. Now considered a trailblazer and a cult figure on the international queer and transgender artists' scene, Scheirl examines questions about his own identity by surmounting predefined genres and classifications. His vibrant compositions often feature images of body parts, excreta and spit emerging from dense abstract clouds of monochrome paint as if the constructed human form is so much pentimento. His three-dimensional installations unite paintings, spatial designs, videos, photographs, drawings, sculptures and performance props. Contributors include Paul Preciado, author of Testo Junkie, Pierre Bal-Blanc and others.

About the Author

Ashley Hans Scheirl (*1956, Salzburg, lives in Vienna) studied restoration at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna. She spent 1981-82 in New York, and then sixteen years in London. In 2003 she finished her post-graduate studies in fine arts at the Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design in London. Since the fall of 2006 she has been a professor for contextual painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna.