Luisa Kasalicky is distinguished by her attentive gaze for architecture, its character, forms and details – whether entire building facades or ventilation grilles and manhole covers. Urban explorations and the experience of everyday city life are important to the artist in her work. Kasalicky finds both inspiration and reference points for her painting in the structures and ornaments of the city, its materiality, texture and colourfulness.

With her mural ‘Vektorgotik’ (Vector Gothic), Luisa Kasalicky responds to the architecture of a residential building (Margarethe Cufer/Oswald Oberhuber) built by the ÖSW (Austrian Housing Association) in the 1990s. The mural is the second project in a series initiated by the ÖSW Group, which began with Anna Meyer in Meidling.

As is typical of postmodern architecture, the building, with its multifaceted window elements and striking roof cornice on the corner of Wienzeile and Esterházygasse in Vienna's 6th district, references the styles of various architectural eras. In keeping with the principles of postmodernism, Luisa Kasalicky also adds architectural references from different periods to the façade: The strict, symmetrical forms of their ornaments not only enter into dialogue with the loose arrangement of the windows, but are also based on the structures of a neo-Gothic ribbed vault. At the same time, the artist plays with Art Nouveau design principles: Otto Wagner's famous ‘Majolika House’ on Linke Wienzeile, just 500 metres away, is covered with large floral forms; the façade of the Rüdigerhof on the other side of the Wien River is framed by a band of ornamentation.

Luisa Kasalicky places her colourful ornaments on the wall surfaces like kaleidoscopes. Just as crystalline ornaments disintegrate with each turn of this optical toy and come together in new structures and colour compositions, the shapes on the façade of the residential building also break down into their individual elements.

The technique Kasalicky used is also worth mentioning. She executed her mural painting using the secco technique. The special mineral paints, which the artist mixed on site, penetrate the structure of the plaster; the reaction with oxygen increases their durability and their antistatic qualities counteract soiling. (Anne Katrin Feßler)