Silvia Krupinska

Organic Contemporary Sculpture.

I’m a London based organic contemporary sculpture artist and reporter of Slovakian origin, working for myself and Colourful Radio, where I’m their artist in residence. I have my own monthly 20 min slot “Silvia Krupinska’s Artist of the Month” introducing artists of my choice. I’ve exhibited internationally including Venice Biennial 2009, USA Museum show London Calling in Orange County and Azerbaijan. I’m working towards a number of oversees and London based projects for this year as well as talking with National Modern Art Museum in Baku, Azerbaijan. I’m currently represented by West London gallery –  Debut Contemporary.

My art is organic and colourful, often as white as Limestone. I am hugely inspired by nature, particularly textures of stones, shells, pods and fruits. I sculpt cocoons and draw never-seen-before creatures. My studio is ever changing installation of hanging lotus leaves and wall art based on my inspirations from the depths of the seas and microbiology. I put as much importance on the creative process and making, as on the final finished piece of art. I often use recycled materials, including my own skin, tennis balls, hair, plaster, fruits, and anything that I like the texture or look of.  (A short video from an event “Organicities” from Debut Contemporary, and another one with my sculptures on a photo-shoot in Margate, England, on the beach).

I like working in collaboration with artists and institutions, as I believe we all have to hold together. I’m a strong believer in supporting each other and that at the same time help the individual artist / creative professional. My interest is in exploring conversation of art and nature, and how that can enrich and educate human lives. I recently visited Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, which is one of the most sustainable cities in the world. The whole visit was very inspirational, and I hope my work and not only in art but also in journalism can be enriched by this uplifting experience.

Some of my selected international exhibitions:

May-June 2012, Wallpaper Factory Leipzig, Germany, Border Case Art Show, group exhibition.

April 2012, The Stone Space, London, Inclusions, group show.

Dec – Jan 2012, California, Santa Ana (LA), Orange County Centre of Contemporary Arts, “London Calling”.

Dec 2011, International Exhibition and Conference, Gabala, Azerbaijan.

Nov – Dec 2011, Forum Kunst, Essen, Germany, EU-ART-Network, “Dreaming Europe”

October 2009 – Italy, Venice, EU-ART-Network, “Dreaming Europe-Real  Europe”
Exhibition, part of La Biennale 2009 in the Palazzo Albrizzi

Website: http://www.silviakrupinska.com/ - for bio, about, portfolio and more.
Blog: http://silviakrupinska.wordpress.com/ - for up to date news and fresh ideas in 90 articles to browse.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SilviaKrupinska - 50 videos, interviews.

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Charlotte Bint about Silvia Krupinska’s works

That Silvia Krupinska is able to approach the making of her sculptures with the attitude of openness that she does is attributable to her belief that art should be, and for her is, fun. Her works are often fashioned from modest materials such as wood, metal, and concrete, as well as some more commonly associated with crafts and play — chicken wire and plasticine. Krupinska’s works are highly coloured and display the tactility and plasticity of their production through their final form and texture. However, the artist’s obvious enjoyment of the materials does not diminish the work’s impact, and an unselfconscious undercurrent of strangeness lends them a subversive quality.

Krupinska began her artistic career as a painter and some early concerns are still present — her decision-making regarding colour in her work is especially painterly. She moved towards working in three dimensions with an intermediary stage of dissecting her paintings and displaying the pieces as installations. Her sculptures to date have ranged in scale, fromFamily Portrait, 2006, measuring 1.8 metres in height, toMeduza, 2007, at 29 cm in width. They have been variously displayed wall-mounted, free-standing, indoors and out.

Although clearly abstract and a product of the artists’ instinct, the forms echo real entities in the world. Krupinska was born in Northern Slovakia and lived amongst the High Tatras, a mountain range on the Polish border, until she moved to England at eighteen. The work clearly references this geography.

The cumbersome forms have an uncomfortable presence in the room, as they seem to posses a level of autocracy. Though they speak clearly of their own physicality and materiality, when encountering them, there is a sense that one has just missed out on witnessing their manifestation, and that their status of full and real existence in the world has only been very recently established. There is something of the supernatural or alien about them, a feeling that they are encroaching. Simultaneously appearing both transient and weighty, their ambiguity only adds to their weirdness. Despite the human hand being so prevalent in this work, one could almost believe that they are able to change form independently.

One of the strongest aspects of these works is their obvious medical connotations, owing to the cell-like appearance of the sculptures and the clinical nature of the tiles. They seem to reference disease — the sense of their spontaneous, independent growth, along with their threatening presence, speak clearly of the malign and the cancerous. The forms also contain ideas about the medical or scientific experiment, and intrusion into the domestic or bodily space.

Charlotte Bint