Katrin Alvarez
| Katrin Alvarez | |
|---|---|
 Katrin Alvarez | |
| Born |
9 July 1944 Güstrow, Mecklenburg , Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | Self-Taught |
| Known for | Painting |
| Awards | Allan Edwards Award, Gold medal in the M.C.A. Cannes Azur exhibition. |
Katrin Alvarez (born 9 July 1944) is a German contemporary painter with an international reputation for surreal yet highly realistic works. She is a self-taught artist and has a background in journalism and writing.
Early life
Katrin Alvarez was born in Güstrow, Mecklenburg, Germany. Her father, an army officer, died months before her birth. Her mother was an architect who worked as an art teacher. Growing up on a huge country estate, Katrin Alvarez developed a deep relationship with nature and animals. This experience has influenced her whole life. At an early age, she found out that she was able to create a colorful and imaginative world of her own by drawing and painting.
Career
In 1969, she received a degree in law from the University of Cologne, and started working as a journalist. As the author of "Studentin S." (1971) under the pseudonym Sybille Braatz, she created a complex psychological portrait. Later she worked as a trainee at the Kölnische Rundschau for two years. She then decided to leave her writing career behind to focus on painting and drawing. She has continued writing occasional poems and short stories as an additional form of expression.
Alvarez's drawing skills caught the attention of a wider audience when her portrait of Lilli Palmer was chosen for the cover of the German Jewish actress's autobiography "Change Lobster and Dance" in 1976, which became a bestseller.
In 1981, Katrin Alvarez achieved considerable success with an exhibition of a series of miniature paintings framed in pure gold, silver, and jewelry in the Galerie Kunst und Psyche in Cologne.
In 2004, Katrin had her first exhibition at the Agora Gallery, a contemporary fine arts gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan. Afterwards Katrin started to show her artwork all around the world. In 2008, Katrin Alvarez was included in Gerhard Habarta’s encyclopedia "Lexicon of Fantastic Artists".[1] In 2012, Katrin Alvarez won a gold medal in the M.C.A. Cannes Azur exhibition.
Art
She was inspired from the outset by Michelangelo, but also by the Brueghels.
The German psychiatrist Dr. Th. Gosciniak has written of her work that, "K.A.S paintings do not try to explain, educate or teach, neither do they carry a mission. They do however embed themselves deeply in anyone who gets attracted to them. They are like a stone cast into a lake. The ripples felt by the individual may expand the horizon of feelings and dreams, clearing memories from debris, thus opening a new way to find one's deeper and inner self".[2]
Exhibitions and awards
Alvarez exhibits her art all over the world. She has received many awards for her work.
- 1968 – First group show, Cologne
- 1972 –First solo show, Cologne
- 1978 - Art Basel, Switzerland
- 1978 – Sahra Kishon, Israel
- 2004 – Agora Gallery, New York
- 2007 – "Exorcism" received "Allan Edwards Award in the Painting on the Edge", Vancouver
- 2009 – "Borderline", selected for the "Phantasten Museum", Vienna
- 2011 – Red Dot, Miami
- 2011 - Museum Castello Estense, Ferrara, Italien – Katrin Alvarez received the Vivid Arts Network Award "Onore allá Creativá e l’eccelenza nella arti"
- 2012 – Solo show, Palais Palffy, Vienna
- 2013 - Chianciano Art Museum, Chianciano, Italien (Biennale 2013) – Katrin was awarded the first prize of the Leonardo Award for applied arts
Paintings
| Katrin Alvarez's art | ||||||
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See also
References
External links
- Official website
- Katrin Alvarez on the ARTROM Gallery
- Katrin Alvarez’s page on the Agora Gallery’s website