Anna Pelz

Anna Pelz, MA, studied TransArts (transdisciplinary arts) at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna from 2018 to 2025. In her artistic practice, she experiments with sculpture, photography and text, whilst her focus lies on painting.

Her creative process is intuitive, whilst at the same time research into current issues significantly influences her work. She is interested in translating reflections into a tangible form, thereby opening up a dialogue with the audience. In her works, inner worlds merge with outer ones, and personal emotions intertwine with social dynamics. She questions categorisations and supposed opposites that coexist within her work. Past projects have addressed, amongst other things, metabolism as a symbol, the building site as a habitat, the land of milk and honey as a space between utopia and a gilded cage, magic and wonder, as well as branches and synapses as elements of an immersive enchanted forest.

Her Master’s project is dedicated to constantly changing landscapes, shaped by the tides, as a metaphor for transitions and processes of transformation. She links this motif to the theme of escapism, daydreaming and dream worlds as parallel spaces that reflect human longings.

The seaside and water motifs are still part of her work as she currently is drawn to the myths of sirens and mermaids and how they reflect stereotypes of women between idealized fairy tale figures, sexualized objects of desire and scary monsters.

Anna Pelz uses art as a way to process her feelings and lived experience, to externalise them and get a different view. She enjoys opening up conversations with viewers, understanding her works as a material bridge. Her goal is to touch people through art, to make them pause, feel something and see things from a new perspective. Colour is central to her as a way to create atmosphere and emotion beyond the need of art historic knowledge, inspired by her own upbringing in a working class family. Pastels are her “cozy colours” and appear in most of her works. Growing up with light pink being “girly” and thus not to be taken seriously, she deliberately gives it space in her work.

Anna Pelz embraces ambiguity, motifs that can be seen as multiple things, letting sadness, anger and joy coexist. While wanting her art to be an outlet for darker topics and feelings as well, she believes in creating beauty and joy that our world needs more of, and to make people feel uplifted when leaving an exhibition. Painting to her feels similar to the process of digestion, a deep urge and constant in her life that accompanies her throughout.