6 April 2025

Vienna’s Artistic Pulse: From Rosaries to Cosmos – Inside the City’s Vibrant Arts & Crafts Scene and Its Global Activities

Fashion.at followed the invitation of Galerie V&V and artist Eva Petric to the vernissage of the new exhibition "Rosaries – Compass for Shadows & Puppets Series", a multifaceted showcase of wearable art, jewelry, photography, and lace. With every new project, one might wonder: is Eva Petric omnipresent? The artist's current activity makes it seem almost improbable for one person to be involved in so many exhibitions, performances, and international art projects at the same time. And yet, she is.

At Galerie V&V in Vienna's city center, Petric's "Compass" series was at the heart of the evening. The works are based on her larger project "Gr@y Matter – The Language of Shadows" and explore the communicative power of shadows and human emotion. Using her own photographic shadow image "Earthling" as a recurring motif, Petric transforms it into Idrija lace, sets it into antique crystal, and mounts the unique pendants onto recycled rosaries. Instead of traditional crosses, these art-jewelry pieces feature light-catching prisms. The result: objects that can be worn on the body or displayed on the wall – a poetic commentary on direction, heritage, and illumination in today's fragmented world.

This is not the first time that artworks by the artist have been on view at V&V. The gallery continues to be a space for Petric's evolving interpretations of lace, shadow, and symbolic storytelling through objects that bridge religious, emotional, and cultural contexts.

But Vienna is just one of many coordinates on Petric's busy map. Fashion.at recently tipped readers off about her current installation "I am an Earthling – What are you?" at Salzburg's Kollegienkirche, on view through April 28th. Suspended from the cupola, a mirrored sculpture echoes Earth's spherical shape and invites viewers to reflect on their identity within a fragile, interconnected ecosystem. The installation becomes a visual and emotional dialogue between Earth and the universe.

Soon, her work will travel further still — to the upcoming EXPO 2025 in Osaka, where her art piece created in collaboration with the Viennese glass and crystal specialists J. & L. Lobmeyr is destined to represent a blend of fine crafts, innovative design, and conceptual art made in Vienna.

At the vernissage in Vienna, Petric shared news of yet another highlight: she will participate in the 69th Viennese Opera Ball in New York on May 9th, where her textile-based artwork "Blue Dot" will be auctioned to support music therapy programs at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in collaboration with the Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research. Made of lace, Blue Dot continues her exploration of textile as a collective skin — fragile, poetic, and deeply human. For Petric, it's a symbol of our shared place in the universe, evoking beauty and vulnerability in equal measure.

The Viennese Opera Ball in New York is more than a festive export of Austrian tradition — it's a meeting point of cultural diplomacy, charity, and artistic expression. Among the artists contributing to the 2025 edition is also Pablo Meier-Schomburg, whose vivid abstract paintings add expressive color to the charity auction. Known in Vienna's gastronomy circles and increasingly present in the international art scene, Meier-Schomburg recently exhibited at Art Basel Miami and currently shows his works in the Dominican Republic. His next station will be the historic Trinkhalle in Bad Ischl this autumn.

Both Petric and Meier-Schomburg exemplify a creative energy that is rooted in Vienna but extends far beyond national borders. They are part of a larger movement in which art, design, and craft are no longer confined by disciplines or geography. Whether it's a rosary-turned-compass in Vienna, a light-reflecting Earth sculpture in Salzburg, a glass artwork traveling to Osaka, or lace-based emotion in New York — Vienna's art scene is in motion. It connects the ornamental with the conceptual, the traditional with the avant-garde, and the intimate with the planetary.

In short: Vienna's arts and crafts are not staying home — they're dancing across borders.


Image: Artist Eva Petric photographed at Galerie V&V on April 3, 2025, during the vernissage of her latest exhibition 'Rosaries – Compass for Shadows & Puppets Series.' Photo: © Fashion.at