Hi! I am Izabela aka hohlik, contemporary artist based in Vienna. Explore paintings that ask questions instead of giving answers. are filled with symbols. invite your interpretation. Not decoration. Investigation.

Gesture Painting Meets Psychological Chaos

As a contemporary expressionist artist, I think with my hands. Fast, gestural painting, the kind where your arm moves before your brain catches up. However, these aren’t polished gallery pieces meant to whisper tastefully from white walls. Instead, they’re raw excavations built through layers of acrylic, marker, sketches, and occasionally rage.
My gesture painting approach captures emotional states in real time. Bold marks. Messy edges. Meanwhile, colors that shouldn’t work together somehow do. The sketchy lines you see aren’t mistakes… they’re the map of how the painting happened. Because process matters as much as product.

Slavic demons mythology

Acrylic painting titled 'Ethereal Rusalka' in a dark palette: A captivating artwork with mysterious ambiance, featuring a Rusalka figure, measuring 50x70, created in 2015.

Between Myth and Mess: Contemporary Expressionism

Moreover, I pull from weird sources: Slavic water demons, Japanese literature, personal disasters turned into visual language. Consequently, the work sits somewhere between figurative expressionism and abstract chaos: exactly where transformation happens.
For instance, color isn’t decoration here. Muted earth tones capture melancholy. In contrast, explosive reds and cyans register intensity. Every hue maps an emotional temperature. Furthermore, the layering creates accidental archaeology…old marks bleeding through new ones, text fragments surfacing, pentimento as honest evidence of change.

Lorenz insects attractor...

Modern Expressionist Art for Brave Collectors

Working between Vienna and Central European traditions, I make art for people who aren’t afraid of complexity. Additionally, these paintings demand active looking. They refuse easy answers. Subsequently, they get better the longer you stare.
Mixed media on canvas, ranging from intimate studies to larger statement pieces. Ultimately, this is gestural painting with conceptual teeth: where spontaneous mark-making and deliberate symbolism collide. Therefore, if you want art that asks uncomfortable questions and rewards repeated viewing, let’s talk.