Croy Nielsen in Vienna has opened Garden in Hell, a solo exhibition by Lukas Kaufmann, running from 6 November to 19 December 2026.

The exhibition takes a loose thread from the eighteenth century and pulls: a fragment of the textile wallpaper from Marie Antoinette's bedroom, a small and precious piece of fabric whose extravagance could only have been produced through an equally extravagant expenditure of time and resources. In Kaufmann's hands the fabric's ribbons, strips of cloth and patterns woven into the material, become probing tendrils, recurring through his sculptures.

The press text, written by Ariane Müller, follows the ribbon into the flourish, the winding ornamental line that trails like a signature, and into the jardinière, the tableware the nineteenth century borrowed from aristocratic centrepieces and turned into planters. Kaufmann's objects wind their way out of small boxes and planters, feeling their way towards connection.

The title comes from Dante's Inferno: the garden in the First Circle of Hell, where virtuous pagans, philosophers and great poets dwell in a green meadow, sighing softly with longing rather than screaming. Kaufmann's sculptures share that mood, soft bodies seeking points of attachment, in contrast to the self-contained, frictionless bodies of the present. The exhibition also nods to the gallery itself: the diaries of an ancestor of co-owner Oliver Croy, who recorded life at Marie Antoinette's court, were part of the show's starting point.

Croy Nielsen, the Vienna gallery co-owned by Oliver Croy, is at Parkring 4 in the city centre, open Wednesday to Friday and on Saturdays. The press text for Garden in Hell was written by Ariane Müller, and the exhibition runs through to 19 December, giving visitors six weeks with Kaufmann's ribbons, flourishes and soft, seeking bodies.