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| ARTISTIC
STATEMENT Karin Janssen's drawings show the unpolished sides of the individual, the conquests and the downfalls of everyday life. How femininity can sometimes be a little bit clumsy, and if you look at it as close as her drawings do, often a bit disturbing. She do this by using photographs of herself. Her work enlarges the collision between unrealistic images of female beauty and reality. Her drawings combine sensitive pencil lines with strong oil bar colours on the paper. Drawing is a very direct medium, which allows her to work fast and move from an idea to realisation within minutes. She research the individual character of each line and play with the way those lines can express different emotions. The medium of drawing is particularly appealing to her because of its honesty: you can't hide in a drawing, if you 'misplace' a line, it is there for the world to see, and it becomes part of the work. That openness and honesty is what she like in the medium, and it links seamlessly with her concept of showing the grotesque rawness of being. Originally from the Netherlands, she now lives and works in London, where she runs Karin Janssen Project Space. SOCIAL ART PROJECTS 2007 - 2011 Co-founder and artistic leader NIKA Art Projects in Amsterdam Our nationwide project Drawing her Story brought together women from different nationalities in drawing workshops where they drew each other’s life stories. The drawings were exhibited at different locations through the local councils and we organised public discussion meetings about integration. >> more... 2006 - 2007 Initiator Women and Children First in Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay Social art project aimed at integration through art, working with children from the slums in Quito, integrating and creating understanding between children with and without learning disabilities in Lima, and creating cultural awareness amongst children from an indigenous tribe in Paraguay. >> more... |