Brigitte Saugstad

Austrian ceramic sculptor Brigitte Saugstad creates hand built stoneware sculptures inspired by movement, ornament and transformation.

Her artistic language has been shaped by physical movement, the Viennese tradition of ceramics and Jugendstil, and extended periods spent in India. Rather than quoting these traditions directly, her work moves through them in search of a freer and more personal sculptural vocabulary.

The circular forms recurring throughout her work are deeply connected to her early years in competitive figure skating — rotation, momentum, the trace of movement through space, freedom in movement.

“Even then, moving on the ice, I already felt myself to be both an artist and an athlete. That physical memory of dynamism and weightlessness still lives in all of my sculptures today.”

Working primarily with hand-built stoneware and experimental firing processes, including Raku firing, she creates organic forms balancing fullness and lightness, discipline and spontaneity. Surface, colour and texture emerge through an intuitive dialogue with material, gravity and fire. Her sculptures often evoke bodily memory, rhythm and emotional states without becoming illustrative.

Her best-known works include Ganesha and Hanuman scu...

University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

Awards & Recognition

2025
Acquisition of Joy — Adolf Peschek Audience Award, 79th Annual Exhibition of the St. Pöltner Künstlerbund, Stadtmuseum St. Pölten, Austria

2023
UP Installation — Adolf Peschek Audience Award, Stadtmuseum St. Pölten, Austria

2017
Lord of Dance — Adolf Peschek Audience Award, Stadtmuseum St. Pölten, Austria

2015
Balance is Everything — 3rd Prize, Leonardo Award for Sculpture, Chianciano Biennale, Italy

2015
ViennaBLOOM — Special Mention of Excellence, London Art Biennale, United Kingdom

2014
Eisprinzessin Hoppala — Premio de Marchi for Sculpture, Bologna, Italy

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024
Dancing on Ice, Hartmann, Vienna, Austria

2023
ViennaBLOOM, Österreichische Werkstätten, Vienna, Austria

2022
(Un)MÖGLICHES, Galerie Lieglweg, Neulengbach, Austria

2022
Ganesha, Hartmann Optik, Vienna, Austria

2011
Eisprinzessin, Galerie Studio 18, Vienna, Austria


Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs

2026
haupt.werk | haupt.stadt, KUNST/WERK, St. Pölten, Austria

2025
MY INDIA, Kunstschranne Weißenburg, Germany

2025
79th Annual Exhibition of the Künstlerbund St. Pölten, Stadtmuseum St. Pölten, Austria

2024
DeSideria, Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy

2024
50 Years Galerie Eichgraben...