The creative bond between sisters Mercedes and Franziska Welte began in their childhood, when they were encouraged by their parents to develop their artistic inclinations. Their family laid the foundations for their artistic development by providing them with a variety of artistic courses and classical music training.
Their first joint work was photographs, which Franziska created together with Mercedes. These were exhibited at the Klosterneuburg Abbey Museum in 2020 on the theme of “was leid tut”. There is an exhibition catalog of the museum.
Franziska’s first metal sculpture was created 16 years ago.
For both of them, this was a sparkling and magical moment. A new beginning and metamorphosis into a new existence.
A common artistic path was now pre-programmed.
A completely independent formal language emerged from this one sculpture.
Through the fusion of the two talents, the artists searched for a name that would express their joint work. They decided on the name NONOS. The meaning of this name is still kept a closely guarded secret to this day.
In the very second year of their collaboration, the sisters went to New York and walked through the city with a small sculpture on their backs. Their first art action.
This was followed by worldwide exhibitions, art events, the world’s highest exhibition and vernissage in an airplane, and an intensive and ongoing exploration of their language of form and color.
Private collectors such as Franz Beckenbauer became aware of the sisters. Charity art auctions also followed, for example in the Musensaal of the Albertina in Vienna.
The first museum exhibition and museum acquisition followed in 2018. In Klosterneuburg Abbey, the sisters created a light installation for the Leopold Hall. St. Agnes with her 18 children. A milestone in her biography.
In 2019, the artist sisters were invited to exhibit during the Venice Biennale in the Giardini della Marinaressa and Palazzo Mora, together with Arnulf Rainer, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono and other renowned artists. There is an exhibition catalog entitled “personal structures”.
The sisters are now represented in galleries in Zurich, Mallorca, London, Gstaad, Miami and New York.
Since 2018, the artists Mercedes and Franziska Welte have been working and presenting their work in their new studio in the beautiful Ansitz Wellenstein in Lochau on Lake Constance.
This unique location offers the sisters a limitless source of inspiration and new creative energy.
Large series of works and new developments have already been created. Sculptures, objects, paintings and new wall sculptures and designs in a diverse formal language. The artists were also able to create a unique edition of Franz Beckenbauer. The sisters were able to portray four different positions from his life and create bronze sculptures.
An ongoing process of development and reinvention by the Welte sisters can be admired, observed and visited here.
