Nicola Barth — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Nicola Barth, born 1966 in Mölln lives and works today near Frankfurt am Main. She completed her master degree in German literature, theatre, film and television studies and psychologie at the JW Goethe University in Frankfurt.
She always thougt about writing books, but soon she put her pen out of her hand and picked up a brush to find new forms of expression. Words were no longer sufficient to describe what she was dealing with: permanent metamorphic processes in non-obvious areas.
The focus of her work is besinde transformation and shapechange the topic of language and the space and is accompanied by questions about identity, the alienation and defragmentation of the individual and its location in space and time.
Her paintings can be understood as a short visual light that gives insight into a temporally ans spatially limited section of a development process.
Painting and drawing mainly in graphite and oil are complemented by tree-dimensional works and digitally manipulated photograhy. The contend follows the same principle and is as abstract and surreal as her paintings.

Artist Statement

https://www.altiba9.com/artist-interviews/nicola-barth-abstract-surreal-painting
"There is indeed a world behind this world. And it's constantly moving. As a philosopher without words, I try to make milk glass permeable." I am also concerned with the above-mentioned capture of a permanent metamorphosis. A moment of mindfulness that I want to keep for myself and reveal to others.
This fast pace in our society and the rapid digital progress demands a stop, a standstill, a contemplation to get behind. I see my images as an arbitrary frozen still image of something that is in a permanent morphic process. Everything is constantly in motion, nothing remains. Time and space are in question. This can sometimes make you dizzy. I paint against the dizziness, because "being one with" (resonate) is a way to resist the chaos. "When everything is loose and in constant movement, everything reacts with everything else, everything finds itself constantly in a process, there is nothing really finished, and when time and space are only fixed ideas, then deception and change are confusion and chance It remains to stopp and make visible. My analog answer to this is painting/ making art."

1. What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

Before I mixed and arranged colours, I did the same with words and sentences. I studied literature (and theatre, film and television, and psychology) and wanted to write myself at some point. I was thinking of poetry and prose and novels and not yet paintings, sculptures, and digital photography. When I was 25, I saw a painting that really excited me. But I couldn't afford it. I thought I could paint it myself, but that never worked... However, since then hundreds of other paintings have been created.......I still see it in my mind's eye with gratitude for the initial spark. Looking back, I understand: I had to exchange the pen with the brush because what I want to understand and explain is so complex that I cannot express it in words. We can not think the world to the end, it is not to be grasped by the mind. Gaining knowledge drives me. I am inquisitive/curious and I want to see what is behind the curtain, under the surface of the water, above the clouds. "There is indeed a world behind this world. And it's constantly moving. As a philosopher without words, I try to make milk glass permeable." Language is usually unambiguous, is controlled by the mind and lifts us to a conformist level.Painting, on the other hand, deviates from the norm. It leads from the deep into the depth of an experience of being, it is a more open form of communication, which is grasped with other senses and leaves more room for manoeuvre and freedom. Here it is about experiencing and not understanding.In non-objective painting I can show a part of what I do not understand but desire to understand. I do not know what I paint, but I see it as a small subjective section of a large whole process that is constantly in morphological change, and I take the liberty of making a cut-out. The triad names of my paintings like HONO BADI NISS and DULUSCH ET IGANI are therefore rather to be understood as a sound or a frequency and are meant to point to the inner idea of things.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I am primarily a contemporary (abstract-) painter, this is my homebase but regularly allow myself excursions into photography and three-dimensional work sculpture/installation when the subject to be worked on requires it. For example, a photograph, which is usually a determination of time and place, gives me the possibility of links between places and objects from different times through digital processing (blending/retouching). Also, the possibility of constructing and deconstructing spaces and creating virtual spaces and realities. Digital art interests me more and more at the moment, that's why as an artist and seismograph of society it's hard to get around it.... Then there's the fact that I'm very freedom-loving and curious and don't want to be restricted to one artistic discipline. discipline. Much more important to me is unadulterated handwriting and authenticity no matter in m which discipline.Much more important to me is an unadulterated handwriting and an authenticity no matter in m which discipline I express myself. So multidisciplinary sounds good to me.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

I would say: The main thing is added value. That can be a smile, an AHA experience, a self-awareness, a new unknown perspective.... I want to lure the viewers of my painting into new spaces of experience, like to leave an impression. Art is ultimately experience and self-knowledge - for the artist himself as well as for those who deal with the work. I think I have the possibility as a creator of art to invite my fellow human beings to come along and to get out of this norm-bound thinking. I invite people to follow me into other spaces. If what I have created is good, then I have created a new kind of imaginary space of experience for the viewer in which he can move and experience himself in a special way. And then I have created an added value. Of course, I would like to achieve this as often as possible. But I am also concerned with the above-mentioned capture of a permanent metamorphosis. I see my images as an arbitrary frozen still image of something that is in a permanent morphic process. Everything is constantly in motion, nothing remains. Time and space are in question. This can sometimes make you dizzy. I paint against the dizziness, because "being one with" (resonate) is a way to resist the chaos. A moment of mindfulness that I want to keep for myself and reveal to others. This fast pace in our society and the rapid digital progress demands a stop, a standstill, a contemplation to get behind.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

With a brush, pencils and paint on canvas or paper penetrate, interweave layers, organize open compositions or let them organize themselves, condense, extract, obscure....prefer oil, like large format....between conscious choice and coincidences....and then sometimes figurative associations force themselves. Preferably in oil, gladly large-format... The essential philosophy that guides me in my creative expression: So what? There is no right and no wrong. Trust in the process, stay playful and don´t take everything so serious. For me the more important question is: under what conditions are we ready for inspiration? In my experience, inspiration always comes spontaneously and unexpectedly. Often when I am doing quite profane everyday work. I think you just need to be just opened and relaxed when you are searching for inspiration, I call it to be „on-air in off space“. Inspiration itself can´t be forced, but the circumstances under which inspiration takes place can be influenced. There are certain synapses in the brain that have to be interconnected with each other and this is an involuntary process. It is always about input and output and the individual „in-between“ that manifests itself in an artistic result. To my mind, an image or a sculpture or even music is a living organism that grows out of itself.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

Hmm... actually I like every phase. In painting, the beginning is usually the easiest for me, I have no inhibitions in front of a white canvas, there is still so much open... the painting paints itself, then when it has condensed and organised itself, I have to work, look, judge more from my head than from my gut.... sometimes figurative approaches appear that have to be worked out or discarded, or some colour and form compositions are simply not right, with the wrong actions the whole picture can be discarded and has to be rearranged.....this is sometimes not so easy and demands all my strength and dedication.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspirations, or what can we look forward to from you in the near future?

I am currently observing the digital art scene....Blockchain, NFT's, multidisciplinary work with partly moving images...exciting! Possibly this could be an add-on to my analogue work - there is a lot to learn here, new horizons and territories are opening up and I am looking to see if and how my work fits in without losing authenticity. With the series "Beings in spaces that aren't spaces", which I started in 2017, the theme of shape-shifting and morphing, I'm already well on track, at least in terms of content. Let's see.....I also experience great intercultural networking among creative people and a movement from I to WE. Borders are falling, the art world is becoming more transparent, and it's much more about the collective idea, collective wisdom. Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Gallery - Tabularasa Transnational Art und Artiste Culture are new sparring partners for me for international and multicultural projects and networking, I am excited and curious and looking forward to what is coming. Together with my artist colleague DeDe Handon, I have developed an intercultural project for which we also received a working grant from the Hessian Cultural Foundation. Our "Echo Reply: Between Ping and Pong" project was originally planned by us as an intercultural project art game to further develop our common artistic themes: Networking, Linking, Transformation, Shape-shifting and Development Processes and should have its first start in April 2020 in the NEW SPACE ARTS FOUNDATION, in Hue Vietnam. Due to Corona, we could not start our residency last April, had to adapt the project to the pandemic and, at the moment, are still playing in our immediate environment. But we have big visions and still many ideas for our project which we would like to present to the public soon. I think we are at the right time with it and hope for support. On the occasion, so if there is anyone out there who would like to learn more about our project, we would be happy to hear from you. I also have several fairs and exhibitions planned for this year, the Swiss Art Expo and MAG Montreux in Switzerland, the Travel Exhibition Water Path by Art Europa and a few more. You can always find the latest news on my homepage and my current exhibitions at kunstmatrix.com

Website https://www.nicola-barth.de

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