KATINKA KVALE

ARTIST BIO

Katinka Kvale is a mixed media, multidisciplinary, curious and exploring storyteller.
Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, she moved permanently to Norway as a young adult.

Katinka studied the skill of weaving, design and later ceramics and combined those crafts to construct tactile items with structure and texture - both sculpture and domestic items.

After years of teaching and working in her own studio, she now concentrates on photography, printmaking and experimentally layering handprints, taking the love for structure, texture and botanic patterns further into a now two-dimensional, lens-based discipline.

She uses nature in all its forms in almost every image, being extraordinarily interested in elements of decay. Both plants and animals/insects, the delicate balance of all living and dead provide a lot of inspiration, structure and texture to work with.

Katinka works in series with different issues that matter, as environmental protection, but also mental health are subjects she comes back to frequently.


ARTIST STATEMENT

My work consists of layered printed techniques, including mono/series prints, photos, and textiles. I use mixed media collage, glue and scissors to create intricate compositions and patterns. I also use double exposures both digital and analogue to incorporate depth and interest in my pieces. I work with great care and craft each layer to ensure transparency and texture.

As ceramist I control the four elements earth, water, air and fire to achieve a finished product. I use the same four elements in my prints and photographs in a metaphorical meaning. In many pictures I work with botanical elements as in a deeper meaning of decay and a process of decomposition. Nature gives and takes and renews to other and new dimensions.