Xenia Lesniewski Hides a Leg Inside a Torn-Open Gift Box

Xenia Lesniewski and Zeller van Almsick Win the Bildrecht ASTORIA Art Award

Galerie Zeller van Almsick presented The Universe by Xenia Lesniewski at Astoria Artshow in Vienna, which ran through September 13, 2026. The presentation won the Bildrecht ASTORIA Art Award 2026. The award carried a total prize of €8,000, with €4,000 awarded to the artistic position and €4,000 to the representing gallery.

The presentation centered on four enlarged consumer objects, a to-go cup, a shopping bag, a gift box and a business card, built by hand and painted to read as industrial packaging.

Torn open, the gift box exposed a fragment of a human leg, dressed and shod, painted in illusionistic detail inside the object's interior. The jury for the Bildrecht ASTORIA Art Award 2026 selected the booth from the full fair for its combined artist and gallery statement. Below, the jury explains why.

Jury: Esther Hladik, Nina Schedlmayer, Klaus Speidel, Sophie Wratzfeld, Günter Schönberger, Katharina Hoffmann

Jury Text about

"The jury recognizes the compelling collaboration between Xenia Lesniewski and Galerie Zeller van Almsick. The presentation combines object painting, illusionism and an approach in which the audience is performatively involved in the installation. In doing so, the installation responds directly to the specific context of the Astoria Garage and an art fair.

At the center are enlarged, iconic everyday and consumer objects in the form of a to-go cup, a shopping bag, a gift box and a paper business card, whose seemingly industrial surfaces reveal themselves on closer inspection to be hand-painted. The contrast between short-lived disposable products and time-intensive craftsmanship creates a central field of tension. Particularly compelling is the interplay between exterior and interior, which subtly subverts familiar expectations.

Lesniewski offers fragmentary glimpses into the interiors of the objects, thereby arousing a voyeuristic curiosity about the delicately rendered figures that seek refuge in the consumer objects and withdraw from the viewers' gaze. As we curiously attempt to look inside the objects, we ourselves become performers in the intervention. The choice of materials is also worth highlighting. By largely avoiding synthetic materials, a sustainably conceived artistic practice becomes visible.

Lesniewski subtly establishes a site-specific connection to the bar, the garage and discarded rubbish. By combining consumer objects with images of sleeping people, she asks about the relationship between consumerism and basic human needs such as shelter and retreat. In complicity with Galerie Zeller van Almsick, questions of consumer behavior, throwaway culture, value and sustainability are negotiated with subtle humor."