ONA B. was born in Vienna in 1957. She studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where she earned her Master of Arts degree under the tutelage of Adolf Frohner in 1988.
A painter, photographer and installation artist, with works in the genres of Land Art, Conceptual Art and Experimental Sound, her career, although embodying that of a unique artist with a unique voice, has been considerably influenced by her willingness to collaborate and function as a member of artistic groups. She co-founded the Phoenix Production group in 1979, has been working alongside other female creators and collaborators – such as Evelyne Egerer or Birgit Jürgenssen and later Ingeborg Strobl or Lawrence Weiner – in the DIE DAMEN group since 1987, and was inducted into the Society of Women Artists and Artists in Austria in 2003.
These correlations are significant, because they illustrate the gendered focus of ONA B.’s project. Feminism and femininity are the fundamentals of her approach. Her alias, Ona B., is a multilingual play on the words for woman and its affiliated gender pronoun. Her subject matters play on the social construct of femininity: monumental lipsticks, high-heeled shoes, jewellery, etc. Finally, her colour spectrum is very much gender-specific: blacks, pinks and an overwhelming amount of red – a colour she admits she does not seek out, it simply finds her.
Highlights of Ona B.’s recent solo exhibitions include: Ona B., Raum für Kunst im Lindenhof, Raabs an der Thaya, Austria (2018); Ona B., Kunstfabrik Groß-Siegharts, Groß-Siegharts, Austria (2016); Ona B. – secret life, Galerie Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz, Austria (2014); Ona B. – Scandal at the castle, Galerie Klatovy / Klenová, Klenová, Czechia (2012); Ona B., Galerie Navrátil, Prague, Czechia (2010).
Her works have been displayed in the following recent group exhibitions: Enjoy – The mumok Collection in Change, mumok, Vienna, Austria (2021); 15 years Burggasse 21, Vienna, Austria (2021); Super Paradiso, MAB Museum am Bach, Sozialmodelle der KunstRuden, Austria (2021); Go with the Flow … Burggasse 21, Vienna, Austria (2019); Die 90er Jahre, MUSA Museum Startgalerie Artothek, Vienna, Austria (2018).
ONA B. lives and works in Vienna, Bisamberg and Strasshof / Nordbahn.
