As part of Bank Austria Creditanstalt’s cultural sponsorship activities, the Georg Eisler Prize is also awarded—at €12,000, it is one of the most highly endowed art prizes in Austria. The prize has been awarded annually by Bank Austria Creditanstalt since 1998 and is intended primarily as a sponsorship award for young painters. The 2005 Eisler Prize was awarded to Gerlind Zeilner. The international jury of this renowned prize reached its decision unanimously. In total, 20 artists were nominated for the Georg Eisler Prize this year.

In its statement, the jury emphasized Zeilner’s exceptional talent in both painting and drawing. Zeilner was born in 1971 in Mödling and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1993 to 1998, including under Gunter Damisch. As early as 1998, she received multiple awards—including the Füger Prize for Drawing, the David Bowie Painting Award, the Recognition Prize of the Federal Ministry for Fine Arts, and in 2000, a residency grant in Rome from the government of Lower Austria.

Since 1999, Zeilner has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Vienna, Damascus, Paris, Budapest, and Aleppo. In Austria, her work has been shown to wide audiences at the Albertina, Palais Harrach, Künstlerhaus Salzburg, and most recently at the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum. The artist lives and works in Vienna.