From 1987-1989, she was a member of the Painting master class and then from1990 - 1995, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, with Bruno Gironcoli.
In 1998, she was awarded the promotional prize for Fine Arts of the City of Graz. In 2001, she received the prize of the Federal Chancellery in the framework of the promotional prize for contemporary fine arts of the Province of Styria. In 2003, she designed her work Abstract now for steirischer herbst and in 2004, her exhibition at the Camera Austria, Graz was entitled Widerstand der Fotografie (Resistance of Photography). In 2005, she exhibited at the Austria Cultural Forum, New York and in 2007, participated in the homage to Gironcoli and exhibited at the Gironcoli Museum, Herberstein Castle. In 2008, Sabina Hörtner exhibited in the framework of Urban Jealousy/ 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran in Istanbul.
Mobility, mutability, indefinition of form are essential aspects of Sabina Hörtner's art which is incredibly precise. In her works, there is a strong reference to the linear through whichshe alludes to the visual information overload of the ubiquitary media and commodities. By vigorously tackling and piling up lines in layers, she irritates the beholders who are forced to switch between 3-D and 2-D seeing thus challenging their own perceptive processes.
One of he most important representatives of Op Art, Victor Vasarely, has already demanded that a work of art should have three qualities: repeatability , reproducibility and spreadability. By this he meansthat a prototype should be able to be transferred to a maximum of genres. Hörtner's works can be transferred to a number of different situations. Even Russian constructivists (theory of linearism) demanded the use of the line as a constructive element in the first step of abstraction; Hörtner, however, does not care to have her art understood as painting. Moreover, her work has a lot to do with graphic art, sculpture, architecture and environment. Whether they are on glass, floor coverings, in staircases, galleries or elsewhere - it is as difficult as it is unimportant to label Hörtner's works as paintings, sculptures or architecture. Her art refers to a broad range of aesthetic precursors.
Hörtner works with her influences without taking sides. She assimilates these influences, alters and transfigures them, adding new conceptual perceptive and communicative aspects. Visual elements of her Oeuvre are flexible and multiple and are often enriched by an interactive dimension. Hörtner's intentions seem to be that of communicative action and public integration. Her œuvre can be understood as an answer to our ever complex and information-saturated visual age.