Arik Brauer (Hebrew: אריק בראואר; born January 4, 1929) is an Austrian painter, draughtsman, printmaker, poet, dancer, singer and stage designer. He resides in Vienna and Ein Hod, Israel. Brauer is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, together with Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden.
Erich 'Arik' Brauer is the child of Lithuanian Jewish emigrants. His post-war artistic training was in Vienna, under the supervision of Albert Paris von Gütersloh. Gütersloh promoted Brauer's work within the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism circle of artists, which had formed in the mid-1950s from a post-1946 Viennese surrealist group that had included Brauer along with Edgar Jené, Ernst Fuchs, Wolfgang Hutter, Rudolf Hausner, Anton Lehmden, and Fritz Janschka. Despite the prevailing art-world taste for abstraction in the 1950s and early 60s, Brauer's work successfully blended high craftsmanship and surrealism in ways that gained him international attention. In 1982 he had breakthrough solo shows in the USA.
Mariahilf is the 6th municipal district of Vienna, Austria (German: 6. Bezirk). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850. Mariahilf is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings. It has a population of 29,769 (2012-01-01) within an area of 1.48 square kilometres (0.6 sq mi).