Original artwork description:

Karin Vermeer is an independent artist who has lived and worked in Rotterdam since 2002. She was born in Tilburg in 1970 and went to fashion school until she was accepted at the Willem the Kooning Academie in Rotterdam in 1990. She got her degree in illustration in 1994. After working as a freelance Illustrator and Decorator for a couple of years, it was time to start as an independent artist creating paintings and murals. Fashion and female portraits have always been her main interests, even as a little girl constantly looking into glossy fashion. She was fascinated by how these beautiful models were portrayed but also found it disturbing how unrealistic these pictures were manipulated. That is what started her interest in mixing up photographs digitally and manually.

My works are created by digitally combining and editing photographs and paintings into new, original works. My favourite subject is the female face. I specialize in portraits made by overlaying and blending different pictures of different people to create unique, non-existing persons. Besides that, I take pictures of models in my studio and create new images mixed with old walls, grunge posters, and other exciting elements. When the digital part is ready, I print and paint the picture. I create thick structures and many layers of paint and gel over them. In this way, I try to make the digital image tangible again. My work is not about explanation and concept. It is a game for me that is about triggering the senses. I start with no idea in general, but a new image slowly evolves by looking at pictures that interest me and mixing them.

I mix prints, paint, gel medium, and a math/gloss coating with most of these works. I create paintings by hand; they are originals individually, slightly different in editions of max. 25 pieces.

Materials used:

Print, grain gel medium, heavy gel medium, acrylics, oil, satin coating

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