Nan Hoover in Salzburg

SALZBURG, Austria—Nan Hoover, who turns 77 this year, worked as a painter for 20 years, until, as she told ARTINFO, “one day in 1973 I picked up a video camera.” Thus began a pioneering career in video art and a long love affair with technology. In addition to video, Hoover now works with photography and creates mesmeric one-person light performances in which she uses her slowly moving body to interrupt patterns of projected color.  

Though a native New Yorker who had solo shows at MoMA in 1977 and 1980, Hoover has conducted most of her career in Europe. She moved to Amsterdam in 1969, taught at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie Dusseldorf between 1986 and 1996, and in 2005 moved to Berlin, where she still lives and works. She has shown consistently in European museums such as the Neue Pinakothek in Munich and the Stedelijk Museum and Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst in Amsterdam, and at major festivals including Art Cologne and Documenta 6 and 7.

Currently her photographs are featured alongside films by Bill Viola in the two-person show “Some Times” at Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, on view through July 6.

Here are her weekend picks for the storybook Austrian city:

1. Nina Rike Springer at Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, through June 21

“Ten minutes outside of the center of Salzburg is the Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, which is one of my favorite galleries. The gallery is beautifully designed without being over-designed. It makes you realize how important the proportions of exhibition spaces are to the work itself — in this case, cheerfully staged photographs by the Vienna-based 30-something Nina Rike Springer.”

2. A Guest of Honour: From Francis Bacon to Peter Doig at the Museum der Moderne, through July 6

“The Museum der Moderne, where I’m showing, is a big beauty of a museum that can hold several shows in an easy way. You don’t feel lost there. The museum sits on top of a small mountain in the center of the city. You take a lift up and have fantastic views of the city and the surrounding mountains.

“This show has work by Doig, Lucien Freud, Richard Hamilton, and others, but the focus is on Bacon. I love Francis Bacon, and it’s nice to see comparisons between him and his friends. There’s also a very good video interview with him, and it’s great to see an artist of such stature in everyday circumstances. You see him in his studio, in his neighborhood, and sitting in his favorite pub.”

3. Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Museum der Moderne, through June 15

“I’d only seen Sugimoto’s work in reproduction, so it was very interesting to see this show. The presentation is fantastic. It’s well hung and the photographs themselves are stunning. All of his series are here: Henry VIII and his wives, the landscapes, and the electricity series.”

4. “Some Times” at the Museum der Moderne, through July 6

“[In the other half of my show ‘Some Times’] Bill [Viola] is showing five or six videos dating from 1973 to 1991. Each room is seven by eight meters and has a single large projection with lots of space around it. These are very impressive spaces.”

5. The pastries at Kaffee Konditerei Fingerlos

“You won’t find [big-A] art here, but my favorite sweetshop in Salzburg is Kaffee Konditerei Fingerlos, on Franz-Josef-Strasse. They have pastries that are sinfully delicious — fantastically arranged like works of art!”