Michael Strasser | Artist
Michael Strasser is mentor of Gloria Pagliani.
Michael Strasser, born in Innsbruck, is a visual artist and cultural policy activist. He lives and works in Vienna. Following his education at the Graphische in Vienna, the School for Artistic Photography with Friedl Kubelka (2000–2001), and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (2001–2006), he developed a multifaceted, interdisciplinary practice. His work operates at the intersection of conceptual art, photography, painting, sculpture, site-specific art, and curatorial projects. His artistic work is grounded in a (de)constructivist methodology and a critical, experimental engagement with aesthetic paradigms. The exploration of space—conceived as both a physical entity and a socio-political construct—constitutes a key axis of his artistic inquiry.
Strasser has received numerous awards and grants, including the Special Recognition Award (2022), the RLB Art Prize (2014), the Federal Grant for Artistic Photography (2008), the Kunsthalle Wien Prize (2006), a federal studio in Vienna’s Westbahnstraße (2021–2028), as well as international residencies in New York, Chicago, Seoul, and London. In addition, Strasser is a significant voice in the cultural policy discourse.
For more than a decade, he was an active board member of the Artists’ Association of Tyrol. From 2018 to 2025, he contributed to the working group pay the artist now!, helping to develop recommendations for fair remuneration and a fee guideline. In 2025, he published a glossary on the topic together with Sheri Avraham.