Stephanie Buhmann

Vally Wieselthier: Sculpting Modernism, curated by Stephanie Buhmann at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, is the first comprehensive biographical exhibition in the United States dedicated to the Austrian-born ceramic artist Vally Wieselthier (1895–1945), a pioneering member of the Wiener Werkstätte and a transformative voice in modernist design. Tracing her full transatlantic trajectory—from her formative years in Vienna through her influential work in New York after emigrating in 1928—the exhibition brings together exceptional loans from major institutions in Austria and the United States to illuminate Wieselthier’s radical aesthetics and lasting impact on 20th-century decorative arts. A fearless innovator, Wieselthier challenged conventional boundaries between fine and applied arts, using humor, theatricality, and a strikingly modern feminist sensibility to redefine the possibilities of ceramic sculpture.

Dr. Stephanie Buhmann is the Head of Visual Art, Architecture & Design at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. She has written extensively on visual art and her essays have appeared in a variety of books, international art magazines, and newspapers. Besides curating dozens of exhibitions, she has conducted over ninety published interviews with artists.