In her artistic practice, she engages with narratives of modernity, particularly narratives of progress and critiques of technology. She is interested in how contemporary modes of organization and narrative patterns define our social reality—how we think, produce, and live together. Her works are often site-specific and ephemeral; they must be produced anew for each exhibition. In doing so, Wimmer seeks to use abstraction to open up spaces in which structures can be experienced and understood. 

Wimmer was nominated for the Simacek Prize in 2025 and received the Merit Scholarship from the University of Art and Design Linz for her work untitled (coal). As early as 2024, she was awarded the Talente Prize by Energie AG Linz on the theme “The Power of Change: Artistic Visions for a Fossil-Free World.” Her works have been exhibited at venues including the Spazio Comel Arte Contemporanea in Latina, Italy; the Artcare Showroom in Vienna; and the former Galerie Trapp in Salzburg. 

 Work Title: Untitled (coal)

In her installation Untitled (coal), Katharina Maria Wimmer explores the material coal, its history and its social significance. Large-format macro photographs of coal briquettes reveal the material’s crusty, dark structure in an unusually close-up view. The high magnification also evokes associations with aerial photographs, geological maps or military surveillance images.

The photographs are mounted on a fragile wooden framework, which is positioned as a temporary wall within the existing space. The menacing and brutal-looking visual structure contrasts with the fragility of the construction. The work thus creates a space of tension between the logic of progress and conflicts over resources, exploitation and the landscape.

"Rekord" brand coal briquettes, produced in Lusatia, were used for the photographs. Untitled (Coal) thus makes direct reference to the region’s coal-dominated history and present – to its landscape, social structures and traditions, as well as to the environmental and resource conflicts associated with mining.