Kerstin Arnold
VISUAL ARTIST
True art cannot be rushed,
it requires patience from both the creator and the connoisseur.
Only those who take their time can reap lasting impressions.
Works 2010-2024
(Selection)
Exhibitions & Shows
(Selection)
07/2024 — 50 Years BBK Saar, Saarländisches Künstlerhaus, Saarbrücken, Germany
05/2024 — Trier West, EUROPÄISCHE KUNSTAKADEMIE, Trier, Germany
03/2024 — GRENZENLOS WEIBLICH, kulturimdritten / art3 Gallery, Vienna, Austria
03/2024 — Wahnsinnig schön? Ganz schön wahnsinnig?, Kulturgarage, Vienna, Austria
11/2023 — KUKT, Jahresausstellung 2023, ERA Trier, Trier, Germany
10/2023 — KUNST IM LANDTAG, Landtag des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany
06/2023 — SaarART 2023, Gallery KuBa, Saarbrücken, Germany
10/2022 — KUKT, Kleine Formate, Stadtbücherei Trier, Trier, Germany
07/2022 — Sommersalon des BBK, Alternative facts, Kunstzentrum Bosener Mühle, Bosen, Germany
06/2022 — Jahresausstellung, KUKT, Ansichten 6 Grad 38’ Ost, Thermen am Viehmarkt, Trier, Germany
03/2022 — FEMALE FACES, Kulturgarage, Vienna, Austria
12/2021 — Virtuelle Ausstellung, Kunst totz(t) Corona, Landtag Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
10/2021 — Into The Great Wide Open, Künstlerhaus Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
09/2021 — KUKT, Jahresausstellung, ERA Trier, Germany
08/2021 — KUKT, SKALA Kino Center, Bitburg, Germany
05/2021 — Kleine Formate, Gallery Netzwerk, Trier, Germany
09/2020 — Jahresausstellung, DIVERSITAS, TUFA, Trier, Germany
09/2020 — KunstSalon23, kleine galerie / VHS Liesing, Liesinger Platz 3, 1230 Vienna, Austria
12/2019 — Jahresausstellung, kleine galerie, Vienna, Austria
08/2019 — SWISS Art EXPO, SBB Eventhalle Zürich, Switzerland
06/2019 — Die Neuen, BBK Saarland, Künstlerhaus Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
01/2019 — Auction preview, EGA / Dorotheum, Vienna, Austria
11/2018 — BBK, Tafel, Saarbrücken, Germany
09/2018 — ArtOnScene Gallery, Kaaboo Art, Del Mar, USA
07/2018 — Gallery Hexagone, Aachen, Germany
12/2017 — éditions tréves, TUFA, Trier, Germany
11/2017 — beziehungsLos, GreenHouse, Kunst im Gewächshaus e.V., Morbach, Germany
08/2017 — Back to School Special, ARTONSCENE Gallery, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA
07/2017 — Art Gallery Essen, Essen, Germany
12/2016 — ARTBOX.PROJECT, Art Basel Art Weeks 2016, Spectrum Miami
12/2016 — The World is a Stage, éditions tréves, TUFA, Trier, Germany
10/2016 — éditions tréves, TUFA, Trier, Germany
09/2016 — BERLINER LISTE 2016, fair for contemporary art, Kraftwerk Berlin, Germany
10/2015 — Contemporary Art Fair Zurich 2015, Kongresszentrum Zürich, Switzerland
07/2015 — BLAU, TUFA, Trier, Germany
04/2015 — FORMAT X, KÖLNER LISTE 2015, The New Yorker | HARBOUR.CLUB, Köln, Germany
09/2014 — BERLINER LISTE 2014, fair for contemporary art, Postbahnhof Berlin, Germany
09/2014 — Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe, Japan
03/2014 — Kunstmesse HanseArt, Kongresszentrum, Lübeck, Germany
10/2011 — Realistische Malerei, Hauptfiliale der VVB, Sulzbach/Saar, Germany
07/2011 — Die Anderen, Eventhalle Luminanz, Saarbrücken, Germany
10/2009 — The Portal of Tranquility, Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
About me
The world is … female – Kerstin Arnold’s allegory of current femininity
Kerstin Arnold’s large-format oil paintings entice the viewer to approach, pause and linger contemplatively in front of the life-size depictions of women. On a pictorial stage that oscillates between restraint and excess, the figures appear captured for posterity in the midst of their action. Items of clothing, hairstyles and make-up refer to our Western present and yet appear detemporalized by the pictorial context. The figures, arranged individually or in small groups, are equipped with props like knives, cell phones, pistols and skulls and like actresses, repeatedly throw themselves into poses, both everyday and unusual. Sometimes the women rest dreamily absorbed in themselves, sometimes they look directly and provocatively at the viewer.
Kerstin Arnold’s motifs are full of iconographic reminiscences of (art) history and pop culture. The omnipresence of women in Kerstin Arnold’s paintings is difficult to overlook. However, their identity remains hidden from us viewers. The artist selects her models after she has developed an idea of the subject and, after the photo session, begins creating her multi-layered oil paintings alone in her studio.
In her painting technique, the artist restrains her presence in her women: her style is graphic, precise and realistic. In the surrounding space, however, she lets off steam: Colors are splashed, run and self-referentially break through the level of representation.
Men only appear as picture-in-picture or back figures. Kerstin Arnold deconstructs the one-sided male story and sets her view of things against it: the destruction of a mannequin can therefore also be interpreted symbolically – as an exaggeration of a male ideal of beauty, far removed from reality. The painter directs her gaze towards emancipated women in our everyday lives. In doing so, she undermines the traditional painter and model relationship, not least with her masculine signature “Arno.”
Kerstin Arnold’s paintings are not so much portraits, as the evocative titles suggest. Rather, with each painting she creates a world of images for the viewer to discover. The artist draws inspiration from literature and music, especially rock songs. In this respect, Kerstin Arnold’s paintings can be read as an allegory of contemporary femininity, with a reference to a truth that goes beyond art: the world is … female.
The artist, influenced by Socialist Realism, was born in the GDR in 1964 and grew up there in a creative environment. She emigrated to the Saarland in 1989, where she still lives and works today. Kerstin Arnold has exhibited extensively in Germany and abroad and is a permanent fixture in the contemporary art market. She joins the tradition of emancipated female artists who focus on the current reception of women in our society and expand art history to include this new, female perspective.
Sarah Niesel M.A.
art historian
Curriculum Vitae
Kerstin Arnold was born in Chemnitz in 1964. After graduating from school, she began a preparatory course for studying art, but was not admitted for socio-political reasons. So Kerstin Arnold sought training that was as close as possible to studying art and learned the profession of technical draftsman from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1984 she studied at the Civil Engineering School in Leipzig. The political reprisals she experienced led her to apply to leave the country for political reasons in 1985 and 1986. In 1989 this was granted and Kerstin Arnold was released from her GDR citizenship before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Her entry into the Federal Republic took her to Saarbrücken, where she still lives today. Kerstin Arnold has been working as a freelance artist since 2006 and has since taken part in various group and solo exhibitions at home and abroad. Kerstin Arnold’s works are published by a renowned art print publisher and have been purchased in private and public collections. Kerstin Arnold is a member of the BBK Saarland.
Awards and nominations:
ARC Salon, 2018, nomination, Still Life category
American Art Award, 2018, 5th place in the Fashion and Realism Human categories
American Art Award, 2019, 2 x 2nd place in category: Humorous and Popart
American Art Award, 2019, 3rd place in category: Fashion
American Art Award, 2019, 4th place in category: Realism Still Life
Gallery representation:
Kleine Galerie, Kundmanngasse 30, 1030 Vienna, Austria
