When an Industrial Material Becomes Art

In industry, molybdenum is used to create products for a wide range of high-tech applications: for example, in display coating or as a component in production equipment for the semiconductor industry. Tyrolean artist Stephanie Stern approaches the material from a different perspective in her current exhibition. Her works are on display at Neue Galerie Innsbruck through August 8, 2026. 

Materials open up new perspectives – not only in industry, but also in art. In her exhibition Under Pressure. ΔS – Orders of Glass, Stephanie Stern explores precisely this intersection. The focus is on the interplay between people, material, form, and technology. Her work is accompanied by Dutch floral still lifes, which shape the exhibition space together with her own pieces. 

Through drawings, photographs, assemblages, and installations, the artist examines how images take form across different media. The result is a multilayered network of connections and new perspectives, shaped by questions of materiality, boundaries, and transformation, as well as the interaction of different systems. Stephanie Stern was recently awarded the State of Tyrol’s Emerging Artist Award (2026) and one of the two advancement awards of the RLB Art Prize (2024). 

Technical Order from Matter 

In addition to molybdenum, her latest exhibition also features other industrial materials such as quartz sand and silicon – substances that all play an important role in lithography systems used in the semiconductor industry. High-purity silicon is extracted from quartz sand and then used to produce silicon wafers, an essential component of microchips. Molybdenum, in turn, is an important material in various manufacturing and coating processes in the semiconductor industry. 

The transformation of these substances is reflected in the exhibition title: energy-intensive processes turn “less structured raw materials” into “high-precision microsystems” – matter becomes “technical order.” Dietary supplement capsules containing molybdenum also point to the fact that these elements occur not only in industrial processes, but also in nature and in the human body. 

Neue Galerie Innsbruck is operated by a nonprofit association, Künstler*innen Vereinigung Tirol, and finances its program largely through public funding and private donations. The Plansee Group supported the exhibition with molybdenum powder from Plansee HPM (a business area) production. 

Under Pressure. ΔS — Orders of Glass by Stephanie Stern, curated by Bettina Siegele, on view at Neue Galerie Innsbruck through August 8. 

Captions: 

Opening night of the exhibition: from left to right, artist Stephanie Stern, Bettina Siegele (Artistic Director & Managing Director of Künstler*innen Vereinigung Tirol), and Kata Hinterlechner (Board Member of Künstler*innen Vereinigung Tirol). 

Exhibition views & floor assemblages, Under Pressure. ΔS — Orders of Glass by Stephanie Stern 

Photos: Daniel Jarosch, 2026