Regine Kafeder, born in Judenburg in 1967, studies stage design and costume design at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. After her studies, she worked in a stage design workshop in Trieste, and since 1992 she has dedicated herself to the visual arts. In Mexico City, she concentrated on the life and work of Frida Kahlo and Mexican popular art before moving to Vienna in 1998 and exhibiting her paintings at national and international exhibitions. Since 2018, Regine Kafeder has been combining painting with lighting technology, and since 2021 she has been expanding her projects with animated short films. In 2021, she is planning the concept for a temporary interactive light exhibition in public space for the main square in Knittelfeld on behalf of the municipality of Knittelfeld. In 2023, her animated short film "Frida and Sisi partner in crime" will be screened at the Tricky Women/Tricky Realities 2023 animation film festival at the Metro Kulturkino in Vienna and at the summer cinema SOTTO LE STELLE DELL' AUSTRIA of the Austrian Cultural Forum at the Cultural Center in Rome. In 2024, she will receive film funding from the City of Vienna Culture for her animated short film "Trip – The Climate Crisis Will Not Be Cancelled". Her animated film "Donau so blau – Donau so Underground", produced in 2024, will be selected for the Danube So Blue competition by VIENNA SHORTS 2025 and will be screened as one of the Finalist Award Winners at the Metro Kulturkino and at the 35th Film Festival on Vienna's Rathausplatz in summer 2025. Regine Kafeder lives and works in Vienna.

ARTWORK

Regine Kafederis committed to figurative painting and presents an aesthetic of the imperfect through precisely constructed lines and coarse color surfaces. In her works, she focuses on women who pose between reality and appearance in the context of painting and lighting technology. The focus is on physicality and addresses the process of detachment from socially rigid structures of the conventionally socially attributed characteristics of women. Presented sensuality is not an invitation to sexualize or exploit women, but a sign of unconditional self-determination over one's own body.