Franz Petto

The artist grew up quite sheltered in the home of his grandparents in Vienna. His father's family, however, came from Serbia, where they had survived a camp of the communist dictator Tito after World War II, severely traumatised. His grandmother became his most important caregiver and from her he learned to speak, an old German, "Palatine" dialect...
His education as an artist was in parallel to his job, because he actually is a mechanical engineer by profession. His most important teacher was Emilio Vedova, a famous Italian painter of the Art Informel movement. As a result he had exhibitions in Vienna's inner-city galleries at quite a young age, but then nevertheless chose a career as an engineer. In 2010, he was committed to a psychiatric hospital, and since then he has worked solely as an artist. He had several exhibitions, including a solo exhibition in 2015 at the Tacheles Gallery, which is run by the Protestant Church. He became well known through his online presence, where he published humorous pictures under the heading ART BRUT&HUMOR - Eating ART with a Spoon. In 2014, he was invited to Saatchi Art's Art Advisory programme. He has sold many large-scale paintings to international collectors, and his paintings have been use...

1988 Class Emilio VEDOVA in Salzburg
1980 College of Mechanical Engineering
1977 General Qualification for University Entrance
1958 Born in Vienna, as the son of German-Hungarian and German-Yugoslavian refugees

2022 Group Show Cupola Gallery, Sheffield UK
2021 The Closed Gallery on www.petto.at
2017 Exhibition OFFSPACE Club International Vienna
2017 Exhibition Art School Vienna
2016 Exhibition Art School Vienna
2016 Exhibition Art School Vienna
2015 SOLO Exhibition and reading, Tacheles Gallery, Austria
2014 Was admitted to the Art Advisory Program of Saatchi Art
2013 Released the Site Art Brut & Humor with thousands of visitors
2012 Exhibition AKH Gallery, Vienna
2011 Was taken up to INSIDER ART Germany
Lives and works as a freelance artist in Vienna
2010 Being committed to a Psychiatric Hospital, a Kathatym-Imaginativ Psychotherapy has followed for several years
1988 -2010 Works largely in secret, mainly he uses construction materials, acrylic paint, sand, plaster, polystyrene and other secret ingredients
In between there are courses for artistic training. Also deals with writing, he wrote, inter alia, a novel.
1993 Environment, Polycollege Stöbergasse: EATING ART WITH A SPOON