Agnes Scherer

Agnes Scherer is a visual artist and university professor of painting at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, affiliated with the Department of Fine Arts & Design and the Institute for Equality & Gender Studies. She holds a Professor rank and focuses on creating immersive installations and operettas that critique power dynamics through historical and anthropological lenses.

Education:

• Art History, Classical Archaeology, and European Ethnology at Universities of Tübingen and Vienna
• Liberal Arts and Sociology of Art at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Research Interests: Scherer’s work interrogates power structures and psychodynamics, often recontextualizing historical artistic strategies to critique modern systems. Her installations blend painting, sculpture, and performance, emphasizing theatrical cross-referencing over individual artworks. Themes include feudal revival, servant dynamics, and cultural precarity.

Awards:

• 2019 Berlin Art Prize
• 2016 Young Artist Prize (Kunststiftung NRW)
• 2015 Nigel Greenwood Art Prize

Curatorial & Collaborative Work: Scherer curated exhibitions like Von vielköpfigen Monstern und gestaltloser Gewalt and In the tame beast's eye, exploring labor and class dynamics. Her projects often involve interdisciplinary collaboration, as seen in The Teacher (Cabaret Voltaire, 2020–21) with puppetry and music.

Labs/Teams: Active in the X-Reality-Lab at Mozarteum University, focusing on digital art and spatial installations. Her work engages with historical and contemporary societal critiques through immersive environments.