The 2007 Eisler Prize winner is Stefan Sandner, who will be presented from May 21 to 28, 2008, in the tresor of the Bank Austria Kunstforum.

Born in Vienna in 1968, Sandner has been active in the visual arts for nearly 20 years. After studying painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 1988 to 1993, he began exhibiting in group shows in Vienna and Amsterdam in 1995. Since then, his work has been regularly shown in Austria (Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Bregenz) and internationally (Berlin, Prague). His solo exhibitions have taken him as far as Los Angeles (2000, The Malinowski Project, together with Christian Kobald) and London (2007, Museum 52).

Stefan Sandner’s work marks a boundary between painting and non-pictorial media, particularly text. His focus lies in minimalist monochrome painting, referencing the legacy of American Minimal Art. Many of his canvases take on object-like forms in the tradition of Frank Stella’s shaped canvases, interacting directly with the exhibition space around them.

Sandner adopts a discursive painterly approach—one that does not exist in isolation, but rather engages with moments from everyday life that are often considered "non-artistic." For example, passages from Kurt Cobain’s diaries appear in his works—not with narrative intent, but as abstract gestures and traces. Content becomes autonomous form.