Stefani Ruprecht is an Austrian abstract painter who focuses on reintegrating humanity as an integral part of nature through continuous engagement with philosophical, sociological, and self-reflective psychological questions.
“How can I conduct research without first reflecting on my perceptual structures?” she asks herself. Ruprecht’s paintings are less explanatory and more encouraging of looking inward. Her work is a collection of matte, hyper-fluid pastel tapestries evoking the fragmentation and hierarchization between humans and their surroundings. Nature’s outrage pierces the canvases, gazing at us with both resentment and a call for reconciliation.
Ruprecht explains, “The eye comes from an existing structure, from which I extract it. It is placed on an almost monochrome surface—the same size, nearly empty. It seems to float, yet remains connected to its origin via the void. What is missing maintains the relationship.”
This same eye shows us the results of our ancestral separation from Nature and the way reality dissolves Nature and us simultaneously. She calls to us, yet waits for us to take our first steps—like an army of prodigal sons and daughters—before she decides if we are worthy of her opening her arms to welcome us.
Ruprecht’s work exists as a perpetual process of metamorphosis, adopting a farsighted spontaneity and meditative insights as methods of proving our essential cohesion and communion with Nature, while firmly denouncing our artificial separation from it.
The painter is not only an artist but also a philosopher. Her works are depictions of complex concepts and theories, and equally abstract as their theoretical inspirations. This mysterious series evolving around a dolphin’s eye explores the idea of perception.
The artist ponders the subjectivity of one’s perception, the pareidolia effect, and the gravity of various factors that influence how we perceive and process the world around us. “I am not interested here in creating something that ‘looks back.’ Rather, something that disrupts the act of seeing itself,” Ruprecht clarifies.
Repositioning and displacement of an eye in both diptychs is intentional and distilled through meditation on “the theme of relational and relative perception.” Ruprecht is challenging the straightforward notion that “what you see is what you get.” Her art demands time and undivided attention for the proportional impact on the viewer. The arrangement of colors, shapes, and elements on the canvas is meticulously planned.
Another profound thought hides behind the painting depicting a squid-like creature gazing eerily at the viewer from its environment. The artist elaborates on its working title, “What is aliveness?”: “In the context of current discussions about artificial intelligence, the question often arises: When is something alive? When does it appear conscious to us? I believe this question perhaps reveals more about us than about the machine. Because whether we perceive something as alive depends on how we understand aliveness in general—and how we experience ourselves.”
Read our “Roots” issue in full
The new theme, born as usual from what the submitted works held in common, is “ROOTS.” Within its pages, we present the artworks, creativity, and inspiration of 60 visual artists and writers from 21 countries around the world. Their diverse voices come together around a shared exploration of the return to where one belongs, the invisible threads of tradition that shape identity, and the ongoing reconnection with nature, others, and oneself.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
