Einzelausstellung Alina Sokolova. Ambivalent Feeling of Staying Alive

– das weisse haus

DAS WEISSE HAUS is honored to present Ambivalent Feeling of Staying Alive, the first major solo exhibition of works by Alina Sokolova in Vienna. The artist was awarded with the Erste Bank Art Award 2025 which, among other things, entails an exhibition at DAS WEISSE HAUS.

Recognized for her exceptional artistic practice and uniquely developed painterly language, Sokolova's work interrogates the fragile boundary between existence and resistance, weaving personal experiences, news stories, and collective narratives into a visceral exploration of survival.

The exhibition presents a body of work created between 2022 and the present, exploring the fragile, unsettling experience of living in an era of staggering instability. Alina Sokolova's paintings are expressive, and symbolist, with a surreal, uneasy atmosphere. For the artist, the large and small figurative works on canvas serve as chronicles of contemporary life, capturing fleeting gestures, and reflecting the anguishing contradictions of a world in which survival feels both urgent and uncertain and the fundamental right to exist is increasingly under threat.

In a chronological way, the exhibition leads the viewer through a personal journey showing references to our digital age, news cycles, the mental and emotional imprint of war crimes, political doubt, endless bureaucracy, the existence as a woman, pregnancy, birth, and coping with being alive in this moment when—yet again— the very humanity and inherent value of human life are questioned and even dismissed. The selected artworks are bound by a shared sense of precariousness: warfare that undermines the dignity of human existence, the erosion of women's rights, and a world in which instability has become the norm. Each piece on view confronts the cynicism of our time, posing urgent questions: Who is granted the right to live—and who holds the power to decide?

Alina Sokolova's artistic practice is rooted in painting but extends beyond the canvas—occasionally incorporating video, performance, installation, choreography, and other media. She experiments with ways to transform painting into an immersive experience, using video projections, sound, and human interaction to push against the medium's static nature. Rather than abandoning the painterly surface, the artist reimagines it as a dynamic field shaped by movement. Collaborating with performers and filmmakers, she creates environments where choreographed gestures and projected images dissolve the spatial boundaries.

10 years of Erste Bank Art Award:

Now in its tenth year, the Erste Bank Art Award—developed as a collaboration of DAS WEISSE HAUS and the Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme—celebrates artists who redefine and expand contemporary discourse. This edition is presented in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum Prague. Apart from the solo exhibition in Vienna, at DAS WEISSE HAUS, the award entails a one-month residency in Prague and another solo exhibition there, set to open in early 2026.

Erste Bank Recognition Award 2025 is presented to Željka Aleksić, for her powerful and deeply personal exploration of the social and existential conditions that shape artistic production. 

Our special thanks go to the team of Erste Bank Sponsoring Programme and to the jury of Erste Bank Art Award 2025 for the cooperation and support!

Jury Members 

Laura Amann (Independent Curator, Vienna)  
Ruth Goubran (Head of Erste Bank Sponsoringprogramme, Vienna)  
Nevena Janković (BLOCKFREI Collective and Direction at DAS WEISSE HAUS, Vienna)  
Dr. Denise Quistorp (Director, Austrian Cultural Forum Prague) 

Public program
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 6 pm
Artist Talk: Alina Sokolova in conversation with Eva Kovač

[Quelle: https://web.archive.org/web/20250908141110/https://dasweissehaus.at/en/exhibition/einzelausstellung-ambivalent-feeling-of-staying-alive-von-alina-sokolova/]

BLOCKFREI (Rede), Ruth Goubran (Rede), Eva Kovac (Kurator/in, Curatorial Advisor), Denise Quistorp (Rede), Alina Sokolova