Judith Huemer

Judith Huemer is an active faculty member at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, holding the academic rank of Professor in the Department of Fine Arts. She teaches courses in Visual Art and Art with Extended Painterly Space, including individual artistic instruction, excursions, and project-based studies for the Sommersemester 2025. Her institutional email is j.huemer@akbild.ac.at.

• University: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
• School: Department of Fine Arts
• Department: Visual Art / Art with Extended Painterly Space
• Academic Rank: Professor

Her artistic practice is deeply autobiographical and conceptually rich, exploring themes of identity, social norms, national symbolism, and the boundaries between art and life. Huemer works across media, including performance, photography, video, and installation. Her notable projects include Balcony Session, Goldstück, mexicoisch, and overall, many of which have been exhibited at significant venues such as the Nexus Kunsthalle Saalfelden and the crypt of the Ursuline Church in Linz. Her work challenges conventional aesthetics, embraces provocation, and redefines taste by integrating elements of kitsch and everyday rituals into high art.

The trajectory of her artistic development reflects a consistent engagement with movement, dynamism, spatial definition, and the interplay of personal and public identity. Her 2006 residency in New York marked a turning point, intensifying her focus on upward striving and power dynamics, as seen in the Balcony Session series. In Goldstück, she deconstructs national identity through performance involving the Austrian flag, questioning collective homogenization and asserting individual agency. Her recent work, such as the kleinkariert series, continues to critique class structures and petty bourgeois values, demonstrating an emancipatory potential beyond feminism.

While no formal scientific awards are listed, her work has been critically acclaimed and featured in publications such as Eikon International Magazine for Photography and Media Art and discussed by prominent art critics including Ruth Horak, Elisabeth M. Gottfried, and Martina Gelsinger. She has no listed PhD or Master’s students in the provided texts. Huemer leads no formal lab or research team, but her artistic interventions often involve audience participation, as seen in Goldstück, where visitors select 'individual flags,' transforming them into active participants in the artwork. Her practice functions as a living, evolving studio-based inquiry rather than a traditional academic research program.