Introduction -
Petra Kleinherne - Transformations

SBS Deutsche
Radio Interview
Petra Kleinherne 
Transformations (2022)

To hear an Interview with Kleinherne on SBS Deutsche pls click here

___

Artist Statement

“Transformations – in German Wandlungen – points to a shift from the landscape towards the figure or a man made structure. When I work in my studio I work through memories, thoughts and experiences that come into my mind. Art history as well as contemporary art play a big role. Instead of sketching ideas on paper before painting I am putting the cart before the horse by starting freely. It is a time consuming process. What excites me is what can happen and that’s something that one cannot predict or practice in a sketch. The moment counts and for me oil paint, brush and canvas can do things that I cannot plan. I don’t like predictability or exact outcomes. It’s more risk if I do it directly and that’s what I like in painting – that risk taking, the uncertainty. It’s more spontaneous – not always successful – and it can be a struggle as nothing is planned. The ideas, memories and experiences take place and take shape on the canvas while I’m painting. And in the end one needs to pull everything together to make it work. I do not use reference material, but influences are painters like van Gogh, de Kooning, Klimt, and German Expressionism, and contemporaries such as Emil Schoenebeck, Georg Baselitz, Markus Luepertz, Cecily Brown and Adrian Ghenie.”

Petra Kleinherne
October 2022