BIOGRAFY of Georg K Salhofer

Art lovers and Collectors are always interested in the development of an artist. They want to know how he arrived at creating his specific kind of work and about the different stages of his career, although sometimes this is not a straightforward path, but a twisted one with many turns and near dead ends. The later certainly applies to George K Salhofer. Since we really can’t go into any details in this regard (it would take far more space) we refer to the compressed Biography below and else let the images do the talking.

While born in Austria in 1941 George’s exposure to Art and engagement with it started when he went through a 3.5 years apprenticeship as an engraver. Later, after having been in Canada for several years, he attended lessons in design, drawing, painting and art-history in Zurich in the early 1960s but considers himself in many ways a self-educated artist. During the following years - until 1968 - he supplemented his income as a freelance painter. He was strongly influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of the postwar period in those initial years. Subsequently, due to economic considerations, he primarily engaged in other activities and did not pursue a career as an artist for more than two decades. Therefore, during this period, the output of artwork was limited, albeit never entirely discontinued. In 1993 he decided to work again exclusively as a painter and set up a studio in South Florida.  

It needs to be mentioned here, that George - in the sense of Goethe’s famous remark of two souls living in his chest - always painted in the rather opposing styles what he calls explicit naturalism, creating for instance landscapes of primordial beauty and contemporary abstract art, which for him has transcendental qualities and he considers this style a most  significant step towards separation from the limitations of historic and realistic content in visual art that leads into the world of infinite imagination and expression. None of his work will ever be aided by AI adaptations.

George's realistic works can be found in numerous corporate and private collections, and they have been shown in the following renowned Galleries in recent years - to name but a few.

Addison Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida / Eye of the Lizard Gallery, Vero Beach, Florida, / Raven Gallery, Stuart, Florida / Caribbean Gallery, Key West, Florida / B & R Art Gallery, Santa Clarita, California, / Blue Dolphin Gallery, Key West. Currently some of his realistic Artwork is displayed in the Hemingway Museum and the Audubon House – both in Key West and online Galleries.

ARTIST STATEMENT

It is George’s central conviction that a work of art must always contain an esthetic quality which he strives to incorporate in every painting, considering it equally important as the more or less unique subject matter or style and medium. Art, as he sees it, has further the fundamental cultural assignment to heighten and enhance the awareness of the observer in a positive way. To be able to convey this kind of message with his paintings poses the challenge and is the main reason for George - by putting prime emphasis on quality and vision - to continually improve his artwork.

Inspiration
Within the last five decades George has lived for extended periods of time (always many years) apart from Austria in Canada, Switzerland and the USA where he resides in the last 32 Years, and he traveled primarily the south of Europe (Italy, Greece, France and Spain) very intensively. Influences from the enormous cultural and historic heritage of those countries are evident in his artwork like for instance in the Land-/Seascapes that capture the incredible light and hues of tropical Florida reminiscent of the Mediterranean. On the other hand, the fresh wind and endless possibilities of nonobjective abstraction, especially abstract expressionism, inspire George to create very distinct artwork. (Check his website "Artegostudio.com").