Berlin, 28, MFA Fine Arts, www.annewoelk.de

I am a contemporary figurative painter, who creates mixed-media paintings with a penchant for bright colors, geometric shapes, and street-art forms. My work explores the relationship between cultural plurality and a recycling of pop-culture, by layering different motifs from Science Fiction film stills and quotations from an art historical background, like Symbolism and color-field paintings. Overall I am constantly studying the possibilities of oil paint as a medium and trying to push my boundaries.

I appreciate the work of Kai Althoff, Corinne Wasmuht, Daniel Richter, David Hockney, Franz West, Gerhard Richter, Pierre Soulages, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko.

I always get two with cheese.

In the summer of 2009 I undertook a journey by car for several weeks along the French and Spanish-Atlantic coast with stops in Paris, Bordeaux, Vieux-Boucau, Biarritz, San Sebastian and Bilbao. I enjoyed myself immensely.

Sometimes I like the sound and the noise of the studio building with its different characters, but usually I love to listen to: audio books, The Cure, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, The Fugees, Faith No More, Jeff Buckley, Amy Winehouse, John Lennon, and Lassie Singers, (among others). Honestly I have no real daily routine, I paint when I am hot for my work. Late in the evening is the best time to concentrate. During the nighttime I get ready for new things and I have my best ideas.

I love to sell my paintings; however, I do a variety of jobs to earn money.

The most important tool is my mobile phone. I make shots of everything I like and collect ideas and details for my painting process.

Much of my effort goes into planning and creating an illusion of depth or space without using perspective techniques. For this reason I focus on experimentally learning how to construct and arrange shapes and forms on a two-dimensional surface. My first step toward starting a new painting is in the construction of the wooden frame; during the working process sometimes I imagine it as bones or a vertebral column.

The observer has the possibility to reflect on their inner bodily construction, comparing oneself to the basic structure of an artwork. The art of painting is always about the intimate triangle between the artwork, the artist and the viewer.

My current research deals with the topic of the forest, city borders, and the city’s outskirts. In many steps, tensions grow between the illusion of reality and the representation of, for e.g., the bodily skin of a painted tree. Maybe it is for that reason that I am so interested in Birch trees. I am fascinated by the bark that sometimes appears like a silken skin; it is especially the process of peeling and the contrast between the black and white stains that inspires my work. In Russia, birches symbolize the idea of virginal beauty, eternal youth and purity. It is no surprise, then, that in my paintings: art, emotions, and ethics are closely bound. Very few human actions take place without an emotional driver and so it is with the making of art.

I use mostly oil, acrylic and aerosol.

I am really excited about my next group show. It is an exhibition displaying drawings from international artists that share a passion for the drawing medium.

I would buy as many artworks as possible from artists I like at early stages in their careers.

Is to take a small road trip to Rügen, a German island two hours away from Berlin and look for the best beach to spend a good part of the day.

Berlin is fantastically urban with tags and street paintings made by artists from all over the world. I love to live on Torstrasse in Berlin-Mitte because it is diverse and dynamic.

Rollerbladers on the bicycle path piss me off!!

A Drawback, Curated by Perennial Art at Atelierhof Kreuzberg with artists: Sara Bomans, Iris van Dongen, Marcel Van Eeden, Michael Kirkham, Nathan K. Menglesis, Fiona Michie, Sebastiaan Schlicher, Witte Wartena, Robin Whitmore. The show runs from 28 September through 2 October 2011, opening on Friday the 30th of September 2011 from 7 to 10 pm. Gallery hours are Wed-Sun, 2 to 7 PM and by appointment.

Atelierhof Kreuzberg
Kunst in Kreuzberg E.V.
Schleiermacherstr.31-37
10961 Berlin

http://www.perennial-art.co.nr/
perennial-art@email.com